Fighting the Hatred
by Me Llamo Berry
Summary: Kazuto Kirigaya was prepared to fight his way through SAO. He wasn't prepared to fight through a death game. He wasn't prepared for the hatred people would hold in their hearts once trapped in the game. Now he has to fight to survive the game, and to ignore the hatred.
1. Chapter 1: Day 1

**A/n I don't use any Japanese honorifics, or write their names properly. I wrote this as if it was being translated into English. Mostly because I don't like mixing languages, and also because I don't feel confident in using them correctly.**

* * *

><p>Kazuto Kirigaya worked on his homework diligently, anxiously glancing at the time every so often while a news program played in the background. It was November 6th, a day he'd been waiting for since beta closed at the end of August. Sword Art Online would be officially launched in less than an hour. He kept at his homework, partly because it kept him from getting up and pacing, but also because he knew he'd most likely be playing Sword Art Online late into the night. The homework he was working on wasn't due until Friday, but it was always better to be prepared. All his other homework was completed anyways, and unless he got homework due Tuesday tomorrow, he could probably play straight through to the night after his martial arts club got out, excepting dinner of course.<p>

He grinned in anticipation. The beta test of SAO had been one of the best experiences of his life. Ever since his grandfather started being disappointed, and borderline abusive, he had to live up to high expectations in his grades and martial arts club. His aunt and uncle were oblivious to his grandfather's actions but they were rather hard on him as well. Kazuto had figured it had something to do with his parents (once he learned about their deaths). It used to bother him, how hard they were on him compared to his sister, though it had allowed his sister to more easily work hard for the both of them in kendo, even if that promise had been rendered useless by his grandfather's stipulations of nearly perfect grades and a martial arts club.

Video games had always fascinated him, and more often than not, were his rewards from his aunt and uncle if he did well in school once it became clear he enjoyed them. In the end, it was mostly an escape from being pushed so hard most of his life. He particularly liked some of the old school games, Legend of Zelda and Pokemon being his favorite series, playing the new ones as well as the old ones. That led to him being fascinated by the NerveGear, and then discovering the beta test for SAO. He nearly didn't get parental consent for it... until he pointed to the small print that stated 'due to the low numbers of interest, any beta testers will be paid a sum of money based on their reviews.' They quickly changed their minds and supported his venture.

Thanks to being a video game nerd, and just a plain nerd all around due to his study habits and excellent grades, he didn't exactly have many friends. Actually, he had none. When he dropped kendo and started focusing on studying, he lost the few friends he had. He quickly realized that a few of them only stuck around because of his grandfather and once he dropped kendo, he had lost that appeal and so them. That experience left him leery of making more, which is why he only had acquaintances in beta, well some were close to friends, far closer than anyone in real life besides his sister. His cousin. He sighed at the thought of her and set down his pen. He wasn't going to get any more work done now that his mind had wandered there. Besides, he was over half way done, he just needed to take a little time during the week to finish it. He'd become rather good at managing his time after all.

The boy leaned back in his chair and sighed deeply again. Suguha was a difficult matter. They had been raised as siblings, but she had always been treated differently, like she was better than him. At least his aunt and uncle (though to his discomfort, to hide that he knew, he still called them mom and dad), tried to be subtle about it unlike his grandfather and the few other members of the family there were. Either way, for some reason, Suguha clung to him. Once he'd learned the truth about his parentage, and how they died, he started retreating from her. He hated hurting her like that, but he didn't feel like he was worthy of being anything but a stranger to her. Of course, she reacted by being even more clingy, to the point of worrying and creeping him out in turns. She shouldn't be clinging to him of all people, but with her own friends. Sometimes he felt like she was stalking him because she had a crush on him. He shuddered at the thought. That was highly unlikely, and he put it out of his mind as an alarm he set rang. It was set for the minute before the launch of SAO.

He turned it off and connected his NerveGear to the server before putting the odd helmet like device on his head and laying back on his bed, waiting as patiently as he could for the clock to hit the hour so he could start. He counted down in his head and had to resist cheering when the clock finally flashed 13:00 in the corner of his vision. He closed his eyes.

"Link start!" he stated clearly and firmly. A flood of colors rushed by as he entered the virtual world. Since he was keeping his avatar from beta named Kirito, he did not need to go through any of the preliminary information needed to start playing SAO. He didn't mind his stats and level being reset to the beginning, it was only fair after all. That wouldn't stop him from aiming for the top again. In beta, he'd come short of being one of the top players to people who were more experienced in this sort of game. Since the end, he'd gone back and played some of the older Pokemon games and other level based games as well as did research into weapons and tactics of war in general. He didn't want to get involved in another MMORPG when SAO would take up all of his time. Sure things wouldn't be exactly the same in the game as in reality, but it would certainly give him an edge. This time, he was prepared for everything. He clenched his fists.

"I'm back, I'm finally back," he murmured before he started weaving around NPCs and people who weren't used to a full dive experience. He clenched his fists and promised himself that he'd do well, he'd make himself famous in this game. He just needed to be smart and not rely solely on brashly leveling up and training his skills like he had in beta. There needed to be strategy to it.

He smirked to himself as he started running out of the city. It was time to get a head start on training. He moved with confidence and determination into a side alley, knowing it was a good short cut out of the city.

"Hey you wait!" a guy called desperately after him. Kirito stopped, turned, and looked at the guy in surprise. Said pink-haired dude bent over panting. "The way you move easily and know where to go... You were a beta tester, weren't you?" Kirito stared at him in surprise.

"Uh... yeah..." He rubbed the back of his neck. He wasn't very good with people, even in games.

"Today's my first ever full dive, you've gotta give me some tips!" the guy approached him and put a hand on Kirito's shoulder. He tensed slightly as he stared in shock, not many people chose to approach someone as anti-social as him, even in game, though he had seen that people tended to ignore personal space more easily when it came to virtual worlds.

"Uh..." he stuttered, not sure how to react. The guy pulled back.

"Come on, I'm begging you!" Then he suddenly changed demeanor. "My name's Klein, nice to meet you!" Kirito shook himself mentally.

"I'm Kirito," he replied with confidence. "I suppose I can help you, I'm not in much of a hurry... just eager to get back into the game." He smirked at Klein who lit up and started cheering.

Thirty minutes later, the older of the two was still eager to learn, but having a rough go of it as a boar got the best of him time and time again. Kirito couldn't help shaking his head as the other was hit in the crotch. Klein curled up, groaning.

"Right in the crotch..." he mumbled, rolling and cringing. Kirito just stared at him.

"You're overreacting. You don't feel any pain, do you? It's part of the game mechanics," he added, trying to be patient. With big injuries, there was some pain, but something like a bruise? No pain at all. Klein froze.

"Oh wait you're right... reflex," he responded sheepishly. "Sorry." He stood up and shook himself off.

"Remember what I said? The important part is your initial motion input." Kirito figured he was failing at being a tutor, but it wasn't like he was in any hurry to gain experience and levels at the moment. SAO had one of the hardest leveling systems he'd seen, but things took time and even with a few hours delay, he was confident he'd be one of the top players easily.

"Yeah that's easy for you to say." Klein stared at the boar he'd been trying to destroy. "But he won't stand still!" Kirito picked up a rock and tossed it into the air before catching it once again. Seemed like he'd have to demonstrate. Again.

"If you do your initial out put correctly," Kirito pulled back his arm, "and activate a sword skill at the right time," he threw the rock accurately to hit the boar, "the system pretty much guarantees that you hit your target." This was simplifying things quite a bit, but that was the gist of it, and he wasn't sure how else to explain it. He'd tried before and had failed, though it was entertaining watching Klein try to chase down the boar.

"Initial motion... motion input..." Klein mumbled thoughtfully. Kirito thought of something else that could help and demonstrated on the boar, almost wrestling it without injuring it.

"Think of it this way. When you start your move, wait for a bit, and when you feel the skill start to activate, drive it home." He watched Klein mutter to himself and then the man gasped and shifted stance. Kirito smiled and backed away in time for Klein to kill the boar.

"Alright!" he cheered, raising his arms excitedly.

"Congratulations." They high-fived. "However... that's as weak as slimes in other games." The black haired boy felt bad about bringing him down a little.

"Huh? Seriously? I thought that was a mid-level boss or something."

"Of course not. Why would one of the first enemies you meet be a boss when you're only level one?" Kirito looked around the field.

Other boars spawned. The sound of the blade drew Kirito back to Klein. He chuckled a bit when he saw that the elder had activated a sword skill, looking delighted.

"Addictive isn't it?"

"Yeah!" He swung the sword again. "So these skills, there are lots of them, like forging weapons and stuff, right?"

"I guess so. I've heard that there's an infinite variety of skills. During beta, some players created their own skills, though there seems to be some limit on what can be done. On the other hand, there's no magic."

"An rpg without magic? That's a pretty bold decision." It was starting to get a bit irritating the way Klein was swinging around his sword, but Kirito remembered his joy when he discovered it, so he kept quiet.

"But many games like Pokemon don't have magic, and that's been around for a long time. Games don't need to have magic to be fun, and most of the time... I find that MMO games with magic tend to be a bit overpowered, players will either have too much power or not enough and overall magic is unfair, so this is a better way to implement a leveling system and keep things fair." He had done some research into that as well.

"Huh. I never thought of it that way. But this is going to be awesome!" Klein enthused. Kirito smiled, his enthusiasm was a bit contagious.

"So what do you think? It's fun to move your body as you fight, isn't it?" he queried, gesturing at the way the other was still attacking nothing.

"Of course!" The other kept moving. Kirito shook his head in amusement.

"You ready to move on? You're not going to level up attacking nothing, and I want to level up too."

"Yeah, let's keep going!"

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><p>They continued like that for hours. Klein overeager to learn from a beta tester, and Kirito partly awkward, partly helpful, and partly enjoying himself. Klein sat down to watch the sunset. Kirito stood nearby, wondering at how easily they got along. He kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.<p>

"I can't believe it, no matter how many times I see it, that we're inside a game," Klein spoke suddenly, thoughtful and still zealous about the whole game. "Whoever made it is a genius." This time there was a tone of awe in his voice. "It really is amazing. Seriously, I'm glad I was born in this time."

"You make a big deal about everything," Kirito responded after a moment, though he secretly agreed. Nothing beat being able to actually go on adventures instead of seeing it on a screen or using imagination.

"Hey cut me some slack, it's my first full dive!" the elder retorted, but he wasn't really offended. The younger paused, he had forgotten.

"Then this is your first time playing a game using NerveGear?" He nearly hit himself for asking such an obvious question.

"Uh-huh. I rushed out to by the hardware so that I could play SAO. I was really lucky to get one of the 10,000 copies. Although you were 10 times as lucky, getting into the beta test." Kirito looked at him with a deadpan expression. Everyone was saying that about beta testers now. "Dude, only 1000 people got to do it!" Kirito rubbed the back of his head.

"Yeah, I guess I was lucky, but most people didn't want to test a game like this, saying it was doomed to failure, they were begging people to beta with money. Guess you missed that advertisement." He shrugged. Klein gaped at him.

"You're joking! Everyone's been saying it's going to be awesome since I heard about it!"

"Well, people were skeptical about full dive. And a game without magic. It wasn't well advertised unless you were looking at the right sites anyways."

"Now that you mention it I do remember seeing some people saying it was probably going to be horrible... most gamers don't like innovational things anyways, look at how well the Wii and Wii U did 10 years ago..." Klein mused. "Oh well, you beta testers straightened that out and now we all get to play it."

"Not everyone does though," Kirito remarked thoughtfully. "I think they only sold so many copies to ease the server into it, they didn't know how it would handle having 10000 players, let alone as many as there would have been if they made more copies... There's probably lots of bugs going on that didn't happen in beta because of the increase from 1000 to 10000." There was contemplative silence for a bit.

"Hey, if you don't mind my asking," the pink haired one started uncertainly; he'd noticed how the other could be a bit closed off, "how far did you get in beta?" Kirito grimaced a little.

"This is the hardest game I've ever played. In two months, I only made it to floor 8. But this time, I think I can do it in a month, even with all the changes made since beta so it's not too easy for us," he answered with a smirk and confidence. Klein smirked at him.

"You're really into this, aren't you?" he teased lightly. Kirito drew his sword.

"Yeah, you could say that. To be honest, during the beta test, SAO was the only thing on my mind, day and night. In this world, a single blade can take you anywhere you want to go. And even though it's a virtual world, I still feel more alive here than I do in the real one." He sheathed his sword again, smiling slightly, but wondering why he revealed that to someone he barely knew. Then again, he'd become closer to Klein than he'd ever had with any person he met, player or 'real'. The guy kind of made him feel like he was talking to an older brother. He sighed and slated that away for thought later. For now...

"Do you want to go hunt some more?" he questioned. Klein sat up, eager.

"Of course!" He subsided, looking sheepish. "The thing is... I'm really hungry. I have to log out."

"Too bad eating here only makes you think you're not hungry." Kirito sighed. He'd made the mistake of thinking that and then devoured a whole pizza upon logging out. Thankfully no one was home to see him do that. Then again, they hadn't been home to make sure he ate either. Anyways, it meant he probably needed to start thinking about logging out too.

"Yeah that's why I ordered a steaming hot pizza for 5:30!" Klein was smug. Kirito rolled his eyes at his antics.

"Wow, you're totally prepared aren't you?" the boy dead-panned. It made sense; that was one of the complaints about the full dive system but it wasn't like it virtual reality could do anything about biology.

"You know it! Besides, when I'm done eating, I'll log back in."

"I see." Kirito was surprised at the feeling of hurt that popped up, but he squished it ruthlessly like he'd done when he realized he had no friends years ago. Besides, hadn't he been thinking about grabbing a bite to eat soon anyways? Yeah, they'd friended each other, but friends in games didn't have the same requirements as in a real life situation. It was more like acquaintances.

"I was going to meet up with some people I know from another game. I don't now what you're up to after this so what do you say? You can friend them and hang with us," Klein offered. Kirito could tell it was a genuine offer, but he looked down, thinking about it. "Of course I'm not forcing you to come or anything," the other was hasty to add. "I'm sure there'll be other opportunities to meet them."

"Yeah, sorry," Kirito apologized, though he wasn't exactly sure why. His good mood was effectively dead. "Thanks anyways."

"Hey that's my line after all your help today," Klein protested. "I promise I'll pay you back for it someday. Thanks for everything man, really. I'll see you around." He held out his hand. Kirito took it.

"If you have any other questions, feel free to message me." They shook hands.

"Ah sweet. Thanks, I'll do that."

After a moment, Klein backed away, waved and turned to log out. Kirito stood and looked around, wondering if he should go get something to eat or do some solo hunting. He glanced at Klein with a small smile, hoping they would remain friends. It'd be nice to have a real friend for once.

"Huh?" The small sound of confusion made Kirito turn around, startled and worried. "There's no log out button," he commented to himself. However, the other had heard.

"It should be, look closer." Kirito walked over.

"No, it's not there," Klein answered, shaking his head, confused.

"It should be at the bottom of the main menu." The black-haired boy opened his to demonstrate. And then he discovered that his was missing as well.

"See not there." Klein seemed to be taking it rather well.

"No... it isn't," Kirito replied softly, wondering what was going on.

"Well today is the first day out of beta and you were right when you said they'd have to deal with 10000 players instead of 1000. It's bound to be a bug. I'm sure the server people are freaking out right now!" He chuckled.

"You will too." Kirito pointed to the time. "Look it's 5:25." The other stared for a moment before going dramatic.

"My teriyaki-mayo pizza and ginger ale!" he yelled. Kirito tried not to laugh at him.

"Why don't you just contact your game master?" The boy asked. Klein froze and then sighed.

"I already did that but nothing's happening." He stared at the icon that said 'calling GM...' as if it would solve everything but nothing changed. "Isn't there another way to log out?" he queried desperately. Kirito looked away as if to think about it, but he'd read the manual through several times.

"No, if a player wants to log out, they log themselves out via the menu. That's the only way," Kirito stated knowledgeably, and with a sigh, predicting how his current friend would take it.

"That can't be right! There's gotta be some other way!" Then he commenced trying other ways. "Return! Log out!" All verbal commands were punctuated with large, theatric gestures. "Escape!" He jumped. Nothing happened.

Some clouds covered the sun, and Kirito's sense of something 'wrong' was screaming. There was something up. Logging out had only been a problem in beta when too many people were logging out at once, and the button had never disappeared. It was almost... as if this was on purpose. But that was ridiculous. Maybe it was just a bug, Kirito tried to reassure himself. It wasn't working.

"I told you it wouldn't work," he finally spoke into the heavy silence. It felt as if the game itself was building up for something important. "There wasn't even an emergency logout in the manual."

"You're kidding... right?" Klein questioned in disbelief. "Oh wait I know, I'll just rip the NerveGear off of my head..." He started trying to do just that. If the younger boy had ever wanted to facepalm, it'd be now. Instead, he chose to respond calmly and rationally.

"You can't. We can't move our real bodies right now. The NerveGear intercepts any command issued from the our brains, using the interface at the back of our heads." Kirito chose not to go into the details of how it didn't stop commands involving regulating the body, such as breathing. It was enough to make his head spin, and he tried to study it when the NerveGear first came out.

"Seriously?" The other man groaned. "So now we got to wait for them to fix the bug?" Instead of being theatrical, he now seemed resigned as the situation sunk in.

"Or until someone in the real world removes the NerveGear from our heads," Kirito added seriously.

"Well I live alone..." Klein sounded rather upset. "What about you?"

"I have a mom and a sister, and I think they'll notice by dinner time." He left out his father/uncle, since the guy was rarely around anymore. He was still pensive when Klein put his hands on his shoulders with force that nearly knocked the younger over. He jumped and then stared, wide-eyed, wondering what he'd said. Thankfully, the elder of the two was grinning, kind of creepily, and didn't seem to be angry.

"H-how old is your sister, Kirito? What's she like?" he quizzed desperately. Kirito gaped at him before recovering.

"S-she's into sports and hates video games. She's totally not your type man." Kirito wasn't sure why he was being defensive of his cousin when he was hurting her by pushing her away; what right did he have to decide who she dated? It was probably just left over big brother protectiveness. "She has nothing to do with people like us." Even while being protective, he still wouldn't lie, and that was the absolute truth. She had always hated video games and when he started being more obsessed with them, she widened the distance between them even more voluntarily, mostly via arguments that made him want to isolate himself.

"That doesn't matter." Klein truly was desperate, but Kirito would have none of it. He struck. The other flew back and fell, starting to groan and moan. "Oh wait it doesn't hurt." At least it took him less time this time.

"Forget that." Kirito decided to share his uneasiness. "Don't you find this weird?"

"Yeah, I do. But it's just a bug." But he no longer seemed convinced of that. Kirito looked away.

"It isn't a bug. If we can't log out, that is a serious problem for the game's future operation."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right."

"If needed they could shut down the server and log everyone out forcibly, in the early days of beta, they had to do that because too many people tried to log out at once and overloaded the server. Even then though, the log out button wasn't missing. They're probably trying to figure that out before shutting down the server." He sighed and looked down. "But why haven't they made an announcement?"

From the look on Klein's face, he was starting to understand why Kirito was worried. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a bell started to ring. Loudly, as if it was meant to reach every player in the game. Klein stood up and they both looked around, startled and worried. Suddenly, light engulfed them and they appeared in the town square. Around them, there was chaos as other people appeared as well.

"What's going on?" he heard a girl say as she clutched a teen's arm.

"A forced teleport...?" Kirito stared around him in shock, and tried to figure out what was going on. He walked closer to Klein, uneasy, and glad that he didn't have to face whatever this was alone.

"Look up there!" A voice rose above the din of confused talking. They looked up. A blinking red hexagon with the word warning on it greeted them.

"Now what...?" Kirito murmured, more to himself than anything.

A forcefield-like structure was forming, red with a warning label in every hexagon. Then the top of the bubble started leaking what looked like blood to form a figure dressed in a hood.

"What is that?" Klein questioned in shock, barely refraining from cursing.

"Is that the game master?" and "Why doesn't he have a face?" were just some of the questions Kirito was hearing, and he wanted to know the answer too. He had a fair idea of who the figure was though...

"Is this an event?" Someone asked loudly.

"I'm scared..." A girl clung to her friend.

"Don't worry, it's just another part of the opening ceremony," her friend assured her. Kirito wasn't so sure; he didn't think there was actually supposed to be a ceremony at all for the game.

"Attention players. Welcome to my world."

"My world..." Kirito mumbled, feeling something cold settle in his stomach. He wasn't sure it was a good thing that was happening here. Just the introduction so far felt ominous for a game.

"My name is Akihiko Kayaba and as of this moment, I am in control of this world."

Kirito inhaled sharply. He was right. Pictures and articles about Kayaba flashed through his head. As part of his desire to know everything he could about the NerveGear, he'd learned all he could about its creator. One of the more obscure things he read had mentioned that Kayaba could seem rather apathetic at times, especially when it didn't involve his work. That really didn't bode well for the announcement. He ignored the whispering around him, wondering if it was really Kayaba. Kirito was sure that it was.

"I'm sure you've already noticed that the logout button is missing from the main menu. But this is not a defect in the game." Stunned silence. Kirito grit his teeth, knowing things would probably get worse. Why else would it be missing on purpose? "I repeat this is not a defect in the game but a key feature of Sword Art Online."

"A feature... he's kidding, right?" Klein asked flatly, not wanting to believe it.

"You cannot log out of SAO on your own power. No one outside the game can shut down or remove the NerveGear from your head. If anyone attempts to do so, the transmitter inside NerveGear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life."

People around them started panicking, some claiming hysterically that it must be some dramatic thing happening to make the game more exciting. Others just jeered or stood there expecting an April Fools' joke that wasn't coming.

The same girl and her friend from earlier tried to leave, only to hit the wall. The guy started freaking out.

"What's he talking about?" Klein turned to Kirito, not wanting to believe it. "He's gotta be nuts, right?"

"He's not. The transmitters signals do work just like a microwave," Kirito replied seriously. "If the safety were disabled, it could fry your brain."

"Couldn't someone cut the power...?" The older of the two suggested. The younger shook his head, he'd done his research.

"That won't work. The NerveGear has an internal battery," Kirito spoke softly. Klein growled and shook his head.

"But this is crazy! It's totally crazy!" Despite not knowing him for long, Kirito could tell that the other was on the way to freaking out.

"Despite my warning, the family and friends of players have attempted to forcibly remove the NerveGear. As a result we are 213 players less than what we began with. They have been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world."

"213?" Kirito could scarcely believe his ears, now his emotions were more clearly on display. This was worse than he'd even imagined.

"No way... I don't believe it..." Klein denied it.

"As you can see," news articles popped up around the massive figure and started orbiting around, "media outlets around the world have around the clock coverage on everything including the deaths. At this point, you can be assured that the likelihood of your NerveGear being removed is minimal at best. I hope this brings you a measure of comfort as you attempt to clear the game. It is important to remember the following. There is no longer any way to revive someone within the game. If you HP drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system forever, and the NerveGear will simultaneously destroy your brain."

Kirito gasped as an image of a boar like the one he taught Klein out to defeat appeared in his mind's eye and tackled him. He fell back, losing hp, and shattering into virtual pieces. He breathed heavily, trying to calm the panic he felt as he clenched his fists.

"There is only one way for a player to escape now. You must clear the game. Right now you are gathered on Floor 1, the lowest level of Aincrad. If you can get through the dungeon and defeat the boss you may advance to the next floor. Defeat the boss on floor 100 and you will clear the game."

People started whispering to each other again, some demanding to know why they should believe him, others not quite understanding what he meant despite it being straightforward.

"We can't clear all 100 floors... that's freaking impossible," Klein whispered before raising his voice, "even the beta testers never made it that high, right?" Like everyone else around him, his thoughts were ignored.

"Last but not least, I've placed a little present in the item storage of every player. Please have a look."

Kirito checked, wondering what it could be, something to make things easier perhaps? But why would he do that after all this? The object appeared in his hand.

"A mirror?" He stared at his avatar's reflection in confusion. Klein gasped and nearly started screaming as he was surrounded by light. Kirito whipped around to look at him, but the same was happening all around, and soon he was surrounded by light as well.

"You okay Kirito?" Klein asked as he walked over, relieved that nothing really seemed to happen. Kirito turned around slowly.

"Yeah..." he replied shakily, not sure what just happened. "Wait... Who are you?"

"Who are you?" Klein responded, completely confused. Kirito looked into the mirror he still held. His face looked out at him. His real face.

People all around were freaking out, some were rather hilarious despite the situation...

"You're a guy?"

"You were lying about being 17?"

"Wait a minute..." Kirito turned to look back at the guy who asked him if he was alright. "You're Klein?" He pointed at the same time the guy asked if he was Kirito.

"But how..." Klein stared. The age gap was now even more obvious between the two. Before it could've just been one or two years, now... it was looking like five or more.

"The scan... The NerveGear covers your entire head with a high density signaling device... so it can see what your face look like. But... how does it know our height and body type...?"

"When we first put the NerveGear on, there was something called calibration... you had to touch your body all over like this, remember?" Klein demonstrated.

"O-oh right... it must be basing this on that data..." Kirito kept wavering between calm acceptance and total confusion and panic with many emotions between. It was like an emotional roller coaster. "That's where it got our physical data..."

"But this... Why? What's the point?"

"I'm sure he'll tell us." Kirito pointed at the large figure.

"Right now you're probably wondering why. Why would Akihito Kayaba developer of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear do this? Ultimately, my goal was a simple one. The reason I created Sword Art Online was to control the fate of a world of my design."

"Kayaba..." Kirito clenched his fists.

"As you can see, I've achieved my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online. I wish you the best of luck." The figure half melted before disappearing, taking the forcefield with it. Kirito turned to Klein, who was staring where the figure had been in disbelief.

"This isn't a game, it's real," Kirito stated softly, both to himself and Klein. It somehow made it more real, saying it aloud himself. "The genius who created the NerveGear, and created a virtual space... Akihiko Kayaba. I've been a fan of him for a while so I can tell... that everything he just said is true. If I die in the game... I will die in real life." Kirito clenched his fist, feeling determined not to let that happen. He may not like his life, but living in either world was preferable to dying.

The stunned silence on the rest of the crowd wore off, and one by one people started crying, screaming, yelling for it not to be true. Chaos was reigning, and very few people were actually thinking with their heads. There were some just standing or sitting there in shock, not adding to the chaos but not stopping it either. Kirito noticed the invisible wall keeping everyone in that space melt.

"Come with me Klein," the younger boy declared firmly, dragging the still shocked elder along with him. After a bit, they stopped, in an alleyway, the noise muted. "Listen, I'm heading to the next village right now. I want you to come with me. Since what he said must be true, the only way to survive in here is to make ourselves as strong as possible." Kirito pulled up a map. "The resources within a virtual MMORPG, in other words, the money and the EXP we can earn are limited. The fields surrounding the Town of Beginnings will soon be hunted clean. To be efficient, we should set up base in the next village right now." He highlighted the route. "I know all the paths and dangerous areas. So even at level 1, I can get there safely."

"Thanks... but.. I... stayed in line all night with friends from another game to buy this software. We were going to meet up..." As though it only just registered, his eyes widened worriedly. "They must be out there in the plaza somewhere. I can't leave them behind."

"I see... at level 1, I can't help all of you..." Kirito responded honestly, hurrying on in continuing before Klein could say anything. "Just one person would be fine... but any more and chances of us all surviving would plummet. Strategically, moving on to the next village as soon as possible is the best idea. It will marginally slow down how fast these fields are exhausted, as well as help us gain more exp faster. But I won't ask you to leave your friends, so instead... Message me in a week, and I'll see about meeting you up and passing on some more tips. That way I'm free to level myself up as much as I can, but I can also still help you." Klein stared at him in surprise.

"I can't ask you to help people you haven't even met. So don't worry about it and just go on to the next village." Klein was even more surprised when Kirito shook his head.

"Our best chance of beating the game is if everyone levels up as fast as they can and as much as they can. And with a chance of death... I'd rather help you all out than find out later that you died." Kirito looked away a bit awkwardly at that. After so long of hiding his emotions both in the real world and the virtual world, it felt weird admitting that he didn't want someone to die.

"Hey, we'll be fine, I ran a guild in my last game you know. I can use the techniques you taught me to get by."

"Alright... Why don't you message me in a week and we'll see if you need my help then with anything. I... I want to help out as much as I can..." Kirito shook himself. "But let's say good bye here. I'd best get a head start."

"I'll message you if I ever get in a jam," Klein told him.

"Okay. See you around, Klein." Kirito turned to walk away. Klein called after him, a bit worried, knowing the kid was probably only 16 if not younger, it wasn't like he was much older at 22, but there's a huge gap in maturity between the two ages.

"Wait, Kirito!"

Kirito paused. When Klein didn't say anything immediately, he started walking again.

"Hey... Kirito." Klein changed his mind about what he was going to say and went for something a bit more teasing. "The real you is actually kinda cute, huh?" Kirito half turned to look at him in surprise. "Way cooler than your avatar." Kirito managed a grin.

"And that unkempt face of yours suits you 10 times better," he retorted. Then he ran off briefly, only to stop and turn, but Klein was already gone. He sighed, and shook his head. The stakes were higher than in beta. Now it was a fight for survival, he had no time to worry about friends.

As he ran out of the Town of Beginnings, he lost himself in thought, barely even pausing to fight enemies when they popped up. He kept going over the information, trying to figure out the motives. He started from the beginning. Kayaba had allowed everyone to think the game would be just fine, and then suddenly removed the log out button. Since they were already stuck in the game, it didn't matter if they complained. From what Kayaba went on to explain, it sounded like Kayaba had already issued warnings about the NerveGear removal, but people hadn't believed him and removed it anyways. But when had he? When had he decided he had trapped enough players and warned people? He obviously had planned it for a long time, it was too sequenced and well done to have been a spur of the moment thing or even something that had only been planned for a month.

The most confusing thing though, was after informing everyone on the new rules... he gave them their true appearances. But why? What was the point of that? Then it hit him. By giving everyone their true faces, Kayaba made it more real. It'd be hard to look at his avatar in the mirror and believe that he would die in real life if he died in the game. On top of which, there were quite a few female avatars before... but not nearly as many after, so he was probably making sure people were true to themselves... revealing their true colors. He was probably watching to see how many would turn out to be killers where they wouldn't be in real life...

"That bastard!" Kirito cursed. That was probably exactly why Kayaba wanted to meddle. He was probably sitting and eating popcorn or something while he watched. He wanted to see people do things that they normally wouldn't do. He wanted to see people despair. Maybe Kirito got it wrong, he wasn't Kayaba after all, no matter how much he had dreamed of being on an adventure, but he was fairly certain he had most of the reasoning correctly. But he would show Kayaba, he would show everyone. He would survive. He would beat the game and help as many as he could along the way.

He killed a wolf and yelled a challenge to the heavens as his determination to do well grew.

* * *

><p><strong>An Well there you have it. My first chapter of an SAO fanfic. Not sure how popular it'll be but... Idea wouldn't leave me alone, and the idea that wouldn't leave me alone won't appear until next chapter... *sigh ***


	2. Ch 2: Of Bosses, Beaters, and Friendship

**A/n 16,864 words to this chapter before adding in the author's notes. I'm rather proud of this chapter. I stayed up until 7 am working on it, then crashed for four hours, and got up to finish it by noon. I only waited until now to post it because I like to read it over at least once before posting it, and it was better to wait several hours before doing so. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Kirito relaxed under a tree, taking a break from well everything. The first floor boss meeting would be the next day. The teen wasn't sure how he felt about that. They had only just found the boss room. He sighed.<p>

It wasn't even one month since they were first trapped into the game, yet about 2000 people were already dead, and approximately 300 of them were beta testers. That left 8000 of the original players, and 700 of them beta testers. And they hadn't even cleared the first floor... did that make the clearing the game impossible?

No... it couldn't be. While Kayaba was cruel for making them play this game, he wouldn't make it impossible. Besides, for many people, they'd spent most of the time since the launch trying to figure things out, coming to terms with it all. Not many actually took the time to train, though that had started picking up in recent days, possibly weeks. He had a feeling that once the first floor was cleared, they'd start clearing floors at a rapid rate as morale and determination grew until they all hit the point where it was even harder to level up and beat monsters, especially on their own.

He sighed. He'd avoided thinking about it, but at some point he would have to party with people more than just for brief training sessions like he did with Klein and his friends. And maybe he'd have to join a guild. He was confident he could probably make it most of the floors without a guild and without teaming up for more than a boss fight and training, but he wasn't sure it was wise. On the off chance he was wrong, he didn't want to die alone, fighting for nothing. Kirito leaned his head back with a groan of frustration.

That was the biggest problem he had right now. There was so much freedom being here in Aincrad, no adult supervision, no obligation to go back to real life. He was free, he could do what he want. Sure there was the danger of death, but that didn't stop him from enjoying the freedom. The problem was, not everyone felt that way. So he wanted to help clear the game, for them. Not for himself. And right now, it didn't seem like it was as pressing as it should be and he hated himself for it. And he worried that one day his non-desire to leave could mean that he doesn't do his part in an important battle. He took a deep breath.

People were dying, he reminded himself. That should be enough reason right there to fight. 2000 people have died to this death game. He had to do his part to see them all freed, even if it meant sacrificing this freedom. Resolve back to normal, he let his mind drift once again to the subject of guilds. Klein was already talking about forming a guild with his friends and maybe a few other people, even though guilds could only be formed through completing a quest on floor three. And of course Klein would probably invite him to join.

He wasn't sure how he felt about it to be honest. On one hand, joining a guild at some point was probably a good idea, but he didn't want to join one so soon since that would curb some of his freedom, and it wouldn't be until after floor 20 that would be a problem, though if things were different than in beta, possibly earlier, but floor 10 at the earliest. So he had to be prepared to sacrifice some of his freedom as soon as that if he wanted to live. He could live with that.

He just wasn't sure he could live with joining Klein's guild. Klein, he got along with great, probably the first friend he's had in years. He half-smiled at that. It felt weird to call someone friend and actually mean it. The problem came with the others... Klein's friends. They all seemed as easy going as Klein but it just felt different trying to talk to them than with Klein. It was different just teaching them comparatively. Klein would listen to him and follow his instructions almost exactly but the others half the time treated him like he didn't know what he was doing, and the other half like they resented him.

A reason he sometimes hated looking like himself rather than the avatar he'd chosen. 14 year olds don't get a lot of respect in gaming communities usually, and since this game had turned into a warped reality, well people were even less likely to listen to him. Klein respected his knowledge as a beta tester, and seemed to enjoy his company enough to insist the two of them go out and work on clearing some of the dungeons and fields together. His friends on the other hand... barely tolerated him trying to give them tips let alone going into the dungeons with him at all. Kirito sighed. He'd actually caught them glaring at him last time he went with Klein to explore the dungeons. He'd never say anything to Klein, it's not like they could hurt him without becoming an orange player, and they certainly couldn't kill him.

Kirito stretched, staring up at the fake sun. Maybe it was time to ease up on the helping out thing. They were pretty well rounded at this point, though their levels weren't as high as he'd like, and it wasn't like he needed to help them at twice a week or more like he had been doing between his leveling up sessions. Maybe once a week, or once every two weeks... Better to withdraw now before they voiced their anger at him. He didn't want to make Klein choose, and he knew he was less likely to be chosen so why bother letting the choice exist?

And that extended to making friends in general. Could he make more friends? He shook his head immediately. When thinking about his future, he never expected to make any friends. He was too isolated by many things. And even though those reasons are now gone for the foreseeable future, that still meant nothing. At the heart of the matter, he was too insecure now to attempt to make friends. He barely even remembered what a friendship was like, and having Klein as a friend was fun, but he didn't want to get in the way of Klein's real friends. Maybe it wouldn't be the same with other people...

Why did life have to be so complicated? Kirito still hesitated at trying to open up to someone for friendship, even though he hated being alone, lonely. He didn't want to be betrayed like he had when he was younger. Okay, betrayed was a strong word, but they did abandon him when he left kendo and turned to studying. He had heard whispers about how strange he was during his martial arts club, and any attempts at making friends there tended to result in humiliation. How was it going to be any different here? There was something wrong with him specifically after all. Rationally, Kirito knew that reasoning may be rather off, but he couldn't find any other reason for why the other kids avoided him, hated him, and sometimes (rarely) bullied him.

Then there was also the fact that his 'true' parents had died in an accident. From what he'd pieced together since finding an article about their deaths, especially from some of the things written, it seemed as if they'd been partying. They'd gotten drunk, and high on some drugs and then stumbled onto the street and died from being hit by a car. His grandfather had a high profile with his kendo dojo, and as a leader in the community. There were many questions of how he raised his children if one of them turned out that way. He lost a lot of respect as anything besides a good kendo master.

Which Kirito figured led to his grandfather being super tough on him to the point of beating him up to make a point about what he was doing wrong in kendo and occasionally, thankfully he kept that private. He was surprised he'd been allowed to drop it but maybe his grandfather was tired of seeing him so often. Of course he still had to meet high expectations, but it was better than not being allowed to drop it at all. And the beating he'd gotten when he announced his decision... He hadn't even known about his parents then, but it made a little more sense in retrospect.

And that was just his grandfather. He wasn't sure if his aunt and uncle knew about the beatings being real beatings rather than just kendo mishaps. They rarely commented about the bruises he came home with when he was still in kendo after all. And while they themselves weren't physically abusive, some of their comments and actions... They were harder on him than Suguha, expected higher grades, higher standards, a cleaner room, they just expected more out of him when his sister/cousin (he still didn't know what to call her) was only a year younger and got off easy. And she was hopelessly naïve most of the time and never noticed. Although the one bright spot of his life had been the fact that his aunt encouraged his love of computers, and bought him video games quite often as rewards.

But the clincher was what happened one day at the beginning of last summer when his uncle was drunk. His aunt and sister were out on bonding experience day excursion sort of thing, so they didn't know about it. Though Kirito wondered sometimes if his aunt would've approved of what came out of his uncle's mouth that day. Once he was completely drunk (something he only did when his wife was out), he started ordering Kirito around like a slave. After the first fist came flying at him, he quickly complied, and it wasn't too bad. It was summer after all, and he had been taking a break from his computer. This was only a little before he found out about the SAO beta, so it was a recent memory. One he was glad SAO distanced him from.

Then his uncle started taunting him. No, that wasn't the right word. Ranting maybe. Kirito closed his eyes tightly and tried to think of anything but that day, knowing he should've stopped his train of thought before it derailed... but it was too late, he was stuck reliving the memory.

* * *

><p>Flashback/

"Brat. I wish we didn't have to take you in," his uncle spoke suddenly, eyes a bit unfocused.

Kirito looked up from scrubbing the floor in surprise and then quickly went back to work when his uncle tried to kick him. He wondered what it was about. His uncle had never acted this way before, not on any time he was drunk, but maybe this time he was more drunk than usual. He had been having some trouble at work after all.

"Don't you dare stop," his uncle growled. "Considering how your parents died, we never wanted to take you in. You would turn out like them most likely. A waste of time and money and space. Doing drugs and partying like that." He sneered.

The boy nearly froze hearing a bit about his real parents but resumed scrubbing the floor quickly. His aunt and uncle had never acknowledged they weren't his birth parents before. Well he hadn't asked but they still had never offered the information up either. He was nearly 14, they should have.

"You've done well so far true, keeping up good grades, putting that computer together, finding a way to make money... but I bet it won't take much for you to go the same way as your parents," his uncle ranted and drank more beer.

Kirito continued to quietly scrub the floor. It hurt to find it out this way especially since while they were harder on him than Suguha, they'd never actually acted with anything less than love around him. He didn't know how to react. He wasn't even sure who he was before.

"Lunatics they were... Crazy, freaks. They even neglected you and left you in your crib alone in the house to go partying! Maybe they should've taken you, then we wouldn't have to deal with your pathetic ass when you do something stupid!" He was in Kirito's face at that point. The boy stared back, eyes wide. Finally, he broke his silence.

"W-what do you mean?" he stuttered. His uncle grabbed him by the hair and threw him at the couch. Kirito landed with a yelp, barely able to twist into the correct position for falling before he hit.

"Did I ask you to speak?" his uncle roared. Kirito shook his head frantically. "Worthless piece of shit! You'll go the same way as your parents, mark my words. We should have never taken you in! I wish you had died." It was the first time in a long time Kirito felt like crying.

/End flashback/

* * *

><p>The rest of the evening had passed with similar rants, and insults thrown at him. With how much he shook and could barely concentrate, and then the fact that he broke a vase, he began to wonder if his uncle was right. They did certainly seem to expect him to fail their standards, and encouraged 'good behavior'. Though, if they expected him to turn out a terrible human being, why did they try so hard to counteract that sort of behavior? Kirito rubbed his face with a sigh. He'd never know most likely. His uncle never remembered that night, and in the months since, it never happened again.<p>

He had however spent some time observing his adoptive parents. Eventually he figured out that they most likely wanted to protect their image of a good family, and so couldn't turn away an orphan. And it'd been so long people had forgotten he'd been adopted at all, and so it would've been even stranger for them to treat him like scum when he was their child. He sighed. It was all so confusing. They treated him decently for the most part, but sometimes he'd catch dark looks sent his way, or hear them mutter some sort of insult like 'scum' under their breaths. One odd thing was sometimes they acted as if they hated him as much as the other, but then his aunt didn't mutter things under her breath nearly as much as his uncle. Why did his family have to subscribe to the belief that kids will turn out like their parents if not handled 'correctly'?

Kirito groaned and tried to tear his mind away from the topic. He was free of them until floor 100 was cleared, and they hadn't even cleared floor 1 yet. So he had lots of time before he'd have to face them again. Why'd he get onto that train of thought anyways? Oh right, wondering about making friends. Sometimes he wondered if his aunt and uncle were right... maybe he was messed up because of his parents being who they were. Maybe he didn't deserve friends. He shook himself. Better get away from this topic, he decided.

So what else could he think about during this break... Oh another reason he wasn't sure about making friends in the game... many people hated beta testers at this point, thinking that the testers should help out more blah blah blah. It was so stupid, but as a beta tester, who knew if he could make any friends who wouldn't resent him for it. And it wasn't like they would keep the advantage for long either. Eventually they'd be encountering new things just like every other player. Kirito hoped that it wasn't brought up at the meeting the next day because he still wasn't sure how to react when people brought it up.

Kirito groaned. None of this was productive, in the least. So what was productive... thinking about what skills he should train? Actually, that wasn't a bad idea. Right now he had just one handed sword and parry. There were quite a few he wanted to pick up too... Searching, followed by tracking and night vision. Blade throwing would be handy, and so would martial arts though he needed to complete a quest on floor two to get it... He checked his skills on a hunch and grinned. Yep, when he'd leveled up at level 5 and 10, he got two more skill slots, already filled by sprint and battle healing. Well, both were useful at least. He'd have to look at a skills list to decide which skills he wanted to learn and which had a higher priority-namely ones he needed now and ones he could wait to have. And then he'd have to be more careful about whether or not he accidentally filled them like he had with sprint and battle healing.

Pleased with that decision, he checked the time. And then sighed. If he wanted to explore the dungeon before tonight, he had to get moving. He wanted a decent idea of the layout and common enemies, to see how much it was like beta, before the meeting. If it came down to it, hopefully he could use that as something to base his suspicion on about how things may be different than in beta. He stood up and stretched before a thought occurred to him. He hesitated only slightly before beginning a message to Klein.

_ Klein,_

_ They've found the boss room for the first floor. A meeting will be held tomorrow at 11 to begin discussion on how to approach it, it sounds like there could be more than one meeting. I think it's just the person who's organizing this raid being over cautious. You should come._

Kirito paused and thought about how to say that he wasn't planning on helping them much if at all anymore. Then he thought of the perfect excuse.

_If you don't come, I'm not sure when I'll see you next. I have a feeling -and you know my feelings are usually correct- that people will start picking up the pace of training and clearing as soon as this floor is clear. It'll be a sign of hope, and we'll gain lots of momentum towards clearing the game. I want to be helping clear the game as much as I can, so I'll probably be too busy to you help out. You know pretty much everything I can teach you at this point, everything left is just tips about specific floors and such, and your friends are doing pretty well too, even if they aren't at your level yet, so it shouldn't be a problem with you able to help them out. _

The beta tester bit his lip as he debated on how to wrap the note up. He didn't want to be too mushy or cheesy.

_Good luck, and don't die, alright?_

_ Kirito_

After reading through it once, he sent it and then sighed before setting off to the dungeon. He already had his sword out as he mentally went over a few things. He was level 11 now, maybe he would reach level 12 by the time he was done for the night.

* * *

><p>Klein watched as the last of the wolves disappeared. He and his friends had been attacked on the way to Tolbana. The wolves weren't too hard for him to deal with but his friends had had some trouble. He sighed and glanced at them.<p>

"Let's take a break for 15 minutes," he announced. His friends all let out sighs of relief though they glanced around warily as they sat down. He shook his head. "We just encountered a pack, I doubt they'll be respawning any time soon." They all immediately relaxed. He sighed and walked away, looking around at the landscape while the other five started talking about random things with some complaints about all the fighting they'd been doing.

Klein resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He was normally an easy going guy but a month with their attitude and he was barely keeping his temper in check. He checked the map again, and sighed. They'd be lucky if they made it to Tolbana tonight, and they'd left early for this reason. He shook his head and closed out of the map. He sat down and then stretched out, tuning out the conversation of his five friends, who'd camped outside that store for days to pick up the game with him. He sighed.

Dale, Kunimittz, Dynamm, Issin, and Harry One, the names they'd chosen for their other game as well. He thought he knew them fairly well, though they were mostly friends through that game, and they hadn't actually seen much of each other in real life besides that 3 day wait for SAO. And that was just crazy fun, a one off sort of thing, and not a good thing to judge someone on.

As he'd discovered since they'd been trapped in the game. Dale and Kunimittz were best friends for years before this. The others knew each other elsewhere as well, and he was the only one who'd met them all through a video game. Before, it hadn't mattered, he fit right in. Now, after having to spend every day with them pretty much, he knew that it did. It was fine; they were still friends, just not as good as he thought, which actually had been a bit of a disappointment. They just were a closer knit group with him more on the outskirts than it appeared in other games.

It all started that first day. They were freaking out far more than either he or Kirito had. It took a while to calm them down, at which point it was a good idea to find a place to sleep since sleep was still necessary. Something about how their brains couldn't handle all the information 24/7. Plus, habit. Then the next day arrived and as they wandered about the town and debated on what to do, it became that mainly there were two sorts of people. Those who were ready to level up and train and do what they had to to get out, like Klein and Kirito, and those who were in denial and didn't think it was possible, so why bother trying? The former had depressingly few people that first day. Thankfully more and more were beginning to try. His friends... They weren't quite with the second group, but they protested his idea of immediately going out and learning how to fight so they could start leveling up and gaining money for better equipment and food.

Apparently they didn't much like the work. Which made him wonder how they planned on getting anywhere in the game before it turned into a death trap since this game had a harder leveling system than any game he'd ever played. He had managed to talk them around, pointing out that they had to go out and fight or they would be unable to support themselves. That didn't stop them from complaining whenever they traveled to a different town or whenever he set a training session. He hadn't set out to be a leader this time, he just wanted to help. Kirito helping out made it easier for sure. Klein sighed. Maybe their attitudes would change soon. For now, he hated listening to their complaining. He hated having to work hard at leveling up just to survive the same as them, and yet he was at level 10 while their own levels varied between levels 5 and 7. He shook his head and started trying to come up with a way to help them level up faster; there had to be another way besides traveling and purposefully making sure they ran into some monsters along the way.

He was startled out of his musings by a message popping up. From Kirito. Klein quickly hit okay and opened it up to read.

_ Klein,_

_ They've found the boss room for the first floor. A meeting will be held tomorrow at 11 to begin discussion on how to approach it, it sounds like there could be more than one meeting. I think it's just the person who's organizing this raid being over cautious. You should come._

_ If you don't come, I'm not sure when I'll see you next. I have a feeling -and you know my feelings are usually correct- that people will start picking up the pace of training and clearing as soon as this floor is clear. It'll be a sign of hope, and we'll gain lots of momentum towards clearing the game. I want to be helping clear the game as much as I can, so I'll probably be too busy to you help out. You know pretty much everything I can teach you at this point, everything left is just tips about specific floors and such, and your friends are doing pretty well too, so it shouldn't be a problem with you able to help them out. _

_ Good luck, and don't die, alright?_

_ Kirito_

After the first read through, Klein blinked and reread it. Then he shook his head. It was so Kirito. So the first boss was found, huh? Klein glanced at where his friends were still talking about things. They would be liabilities in that fight, so it seemed as if he'd have to sit it out. He chuckled at the line about the feeling.

Kirito's feelings were rather accurate. He was rather good at avoiding traps that way. Except for when Klein chose not to listen to him. Which only happened once. And he regretted it. After that, if trouble happened, it usually occurred because Klein didn't hear Kirito warn him, or because neither of them were as aware of their surroundings as they should be. But they always got out. And that was usually when he gained the most exp, which is why he always went with just Kirito, and didn't let any of his friends come along, it's not like those excursions would've been good for them anyways. Of course they complained about him abandoning them. He always ignored them. It gave them a break from training which they did enjoy after all.

Maybe the first floor being cleared would finally get his friends to get a move on and train. They all had potential to help clear the floors if they just trained. He glanced at them and sighed. First they just had to make it to Tolbana. He checked how long they'd been taking a break and resolved to quickly reply to Kirito before they set off again. He typed up a message after some more consideration. Then he turned to his friends.

"Alright, time to get going if we want to be in town by nightfall," he announced.

"Oh come on... we've traveled so much the last few weeks, why can't we take a break from it," Harry One complained. The others were already moving, Dale the slowest besides Harry.

"Because we're going to Tolbana, and then we will take a break, since that is where the dungeon is," Klein answered as patiently as he could manage.

"But why Tolbana? The fields at the last town were just fine to train with," Dale contributed, sounding whiny. Klein started walking, knowing they'd follow, and tried to think of how to answer. But he didn't have too.

"Because the least amount of people have made it there so there's more for us to hunt," Issin responded glumly. "Gives us more of a chance to level up without dying too."

"That's right. If we don't want to die the best way to prevent that is to train as hard as we can, right now. It's been a month," Klein added, "and most players are still at level 5 or lower, and those that aren't are closer to level 10, and in Tolbana. They're not likely to use the fields with the main floor dungeons right there.

"Why can't we just accept that we're going to die?" Kunimittz asked, causing dead silence among the others who were still grumbling. "We're not meant to beat this game anyways, how can we? 100 floors without dying once, that's impossible, only the most hardcore gamers can do that."

The others voiced subdued agreements, though none sounded as pessimistic as Kunimittz. Klein sighed and turned to face them. They all stopped, and it was clear how little they believed that the game could be cleared.

"Even if that is true, even if we will die before the game is clear, I'd still prefer to do my best to stay alive, and to help clear the game. Every death in the dungeons, every death against a boss, each death helps bring us one step closer to clearing the game. You know why? Because they died fighting for us to be free. Because they helped clear out enemies and land damage on the boss. If I'm going to die, I want my death to mean something, not be because I was half heartedly fighting a low level wolf and made a stupid mistake."

"If you have such ambitions, why didn't you just go off with Kirito instead of dragging us off when we didn't want to go?" Kunimittz replied bitterly.

Klein stared at him, speechless for a moment. Then his brain caught up. He took a deep breath, trying to was away his frustration and that small smidgen of hurt that he refused to acknowledge. He still wasn't calm enough to speak without voicing the frustration or raising his voice, but he responded anyways.

"I wanted to make sure you live. I'm not dragging you everywhere because it's fun, but because I want to help you survive. If you're that determined to turn down my help, then I suppose I'll just have to leave you behind after we reach Tolbana." He immediately felt bad for losing it but turned around with a sigh. In the end, he was doing all he could. They were the ones who didn't want his help.

"Why don't we just get to Tolbana and take a few days to cool off and think about things?" Dynamm, usually the quiet one, suggested. Issin nodded in agreement.

"It is a rather big town, so we can find plenty of distractions," he pointed out. The others agreed immediately. Klein started walking.

"Alright, fine by me. Let's just get there without any more trouble then." They walked in silence. Klein debated with himself on whether or not to go to the boss meeting now that he was free. After a moment, he decided that he'd rather explore the dungeon and see how he was solo before committing to helping clear the floor. It seemed he might have to go solo after all, better get used to the idea.

* * *

><p>Kirito collapsed on the bed in the inn he rented a room from. He might have over done it a little, but at the tail end, he did make it to level 12, so he was content with that. And all of his skills had improved slightly. Now he could finally see what Klein had to say. He'd gotten the reply hours ago but had been too busy fighting to check. Then he just wanted to find a bed. He opened the message.<p>

_ Kirito,_

_ While I'd love to come help out with the boss, I don't think I can. The highest of my friends is at level 7, maybe level 8 by the time we reach Tolbana. They'd be a liability in a boss fight right now, and if they knew I was going, they'd insist on coming along. They seem to still think about the glory of doing well sometimes when they aren't worrying about this being a death game._

_ Too bad you'll be busy... I think you're right about people getting their acts together. I'm hoping that happens with my friends, I'm getting tired of dragging them to train. I'll see you around then._

_ Good luck to you too, and stay alive._

_ Klein_

Kirito half smiled at the tone of the message. He sighed. He'd expected as much really with Klein being unable to help, but it was still a bit disappointing. They needed everyone they could get to fight the boss. He sent a quick message in response, so that Klein didn't think he was mad at him or something. He yawned and stretched before deciding that he should get some rest, who knew what the boss meeting would bring?

* * *

><p>Asuna walked through town nervously. She'd leveled up to level 10 the night before in preparation for the boss meeting today. She wanted to do something rather than sit and wait for death to come. She just hoped she was at a high enough level that she could help before she died. She took a deep breath and found a seat in the coliseum. She chose not to be near the crowd.<p>

11:00 approached and no one stood up to take charge at first. She watched as people looked around, trying to figure out who was going to lead, and what to do. Finally, a blue haired man stepped up. He must've dyed it at some point. No one had blue hair naturally after all.

"Well looks like everyone who wanted to be here is here. Hello, my name is Diavel, and since no one else seems to want to step up and take charge, I suppose it falls to me, and I suppose it makes sense, since my party and I found what has to be the boss room. We didn't see the boss, but I'm sure it is the room. Most of this dungeon has been mapped at this point in time after all, which doesn't leave many unmapped areas it could be. I think it would be best if those of us in raid party are at least level 8, but level 9 or higher is better. We don't want to lose anyone to this boss. Any questions so far?" Most people shook their heads. Asuna just sat there. She still wasn't sure she could help, but she had to try, and she was at level 10 so she should be okay, if he was right about the levels.

"No, but I have something to say!" a guy exclaimed across the stands from Asuna. Everyone turned to look at him. Then he jumped down the stands to the ground to stand next to Diavel. "My name's Kibaou. Before anything else is covered there's something I want to say. Some of you need to apologize to the 2,000 people who've died so far!"

Asuna blinked, wondering what that's about. Why would someone need to apologize to people who died? Because they didn't protect them? But that's ridiculous, there's no way all 2000 people were connected to whoever needed to apologize. As she looked around, it seemed that most people knew what he was talking about. Some seemed in agreement, other's against, and there was a boy who looked a bit uncomfortable with the topic.

"Kibaou, you're referring to those who were beta testers, correct?" Diavel asked calmly. Now it made more sense, but Asuna still didn't think asking the 1000 or so beta testers to apologizing for not helping the 2000 people who died was right.

"Of course I am! On the day this stupid game started, those beta guys ditched us beginners and left us to fend for ourselves while they disappeared to get stronger! They took all the good hunting spots and all the easy quests for themselves. And they've just been ignoring us this whole time." He growled suddenly. "Hey I bet some of them are here! Come on out beta testers. We should make them get on their knees and apologize, and give up all the items and money they've hoarded!"

Asuna stared, glad she had a hood on so no one would notice. Give up all the items and money they earned? That was a bit far, even if they could've helped more. She had a new weapon herself, the wind fleuret and she had a decent amount of money, and she wasn't a beta tester. She wasn't even used to playing video games at all and she was doing okay for herself. Maybe he was one of those who didn't like working for everything. And it seemed he wasn't done yet.

"As party members we can't trust them with our lives when they won't trust us. So why should we trust them?" He seemed smug with his arms crossed as if he'd just delivered the speech that would turn everyone against beta testers.

Asuna looked around and was stunned to see quite a few people in agreement with his opinions. And then there was that boy, who seemed to be shaking or something. Maybe he was a beta tester. But it didn't matter to her either way. It wasn't like she was going to have much contact with him or any other player. She was just here to help with the boss fight, and maybe die along the way.

"Can I say something?" someone inquired with a deep voice.

Asuna jumped and looked for the source as he stood up. He was a rather large black man, a rather rare sight in a Japanese dominated game. What did he have to say? She wondered. They were rather off topic at this point. What did it matter about the beta testers as long as the boss was beaten?

Kibaou backed up uncertainly as the larger man walked towards him.

"My name is Agil. Kibaou, let me get this straight," he began, "you're saying that because the former beta testers didn't take care of them, many beginners died. And you want them to apologize and give up their wages. Is that right?" he questioned calmly, no sign of anger. Yet, Kibaou still seemed scared of him.

"Y-yeah," he stuttered. Agil reached into a pocket and pulled out a small book.

"You received this guidebook too, didn't you? It was provided for free at the item store after all."

"Sure I got one," the smaller man seemed to be recovering from his initial fear of Agil, "so what if I did?"

"It was the former beta testers who were distributing these."

Everyone reacted in surprise. Asuna pulled out her own, she'd studied it every night in the hopes that it would help her survive. It was a first edition but she hadn't had a reason to get a newer one yet. She stared at it, surprised, and thankful that the beta testers had published it. It'd certainly made things easier on her, though she still wasn't very confident in her abilities and knowledge. Agil turned to the crowd while Kibaou wilted, though it was clear he still hated beta testers.

"Listen up. Everyone had equal access to this information. And yet, many players still died, some of the formerly beta testers themselves, I might add," Agil commented coolly. He paused to let people soak in that knowledge. Not many people knew about those deaths because they weren't talked about and only beta testers knew who was a beta tester in the end. He'd heard about the deaths from one of them himself when he was looking for some information on player owned shops. "What to learn from these failures and how to try to defeat the boss, that's what I thought we'd be discussing here."

Agil turned and glanced at Kibaou before returning to his seat. The smaller man did the same in a huff, crossing his arms and pouting like a sullen child. Diavel glanced at Kibaou, probably to make sure the man had nothing else to say.

"Okay, can we resume the meeting now?" Almost everyone nodded. "As for information on the boss... Actually the latest edition of that guidebook was just issued. According to it, the boss's name is Illfang the Kobold Lord. He also has an entourage known as the Ruin Kobold Sentinels. The boss is armed with an axe and a buckler. He has four health bars, and when the last one is in the red, he switches to a curved sword-type weapon called a Talwar. His attack pattern changes too." Diavel closed his book and let that sink in for people, looking around.

"Alright, now the next thing we should do is form parties with each other, there's a limit of 6 per party, but there's many benefits to being in a party, including exp gain, and more of a chance against a boss when solo. No one should be fighting solo, we don't want to lose anyone to this boss, and we're still getting used to the way things are done here."

People started talking and forming parties. Asuna just watched. It seemed like they all knew each other. She hated interrupting conversations and intruding on friendships, so she chose to remain where she was and hope that being solo would be okay. Oh, who was she kidding? She wouldn't survive the boss fight. But she had to try anyways.

"It looks like you were left out too," a boy commented from right next to her. She jumped slightly and then shrugged, still hiding within her cloak. She glanced quickly to see who it was, and was surprised to find that it was the boy she thought might be a beta tester.

"Everyone knows each other already," she answered softly, "so I didn't want to join them."

"Well, you heard what he said, no one should be solo, so what do you say we form a party together? Only until the boss is defeated of course," he added hastily.

He sent her the invitation and held his breath. He really hated trying to make friends or even acquaintances to team up with, but he didn't want to stand out for being a beta tester right now. It was the last thing people needed to worry about until the boss was defeated. And if he was alone, they'd figure it out. Although this girl wasn't likely to accept, she seemed even more insecure and socially inept than he was, and that was saying a lot. She hit accept. His eyes were drawn to the addition of her health bar below his.

"Asuna huh," he mumbled.

"How did you know my name?"

"Wait is it okay if I use it? I said it correctly, didn't I?" he responded worriedly. She just stared at him. "Oh wait... When you accepted the invitation, your health bar appeared below mine, take a look at yours..." he encouraged. She did so.

"Kirito?" she read aloud.

"Yes, that's me."

"Alright, got your parties? Now for the rest of the day, you should take the time to explore the dungeons, I'll give everyone the map so you can check out the boss room yourself, just be careful not to start the battle by yourselves. Exploring the dungeons for the rest of the day will allow you to grow used to working within your parties, especially for solo players. It will also be a good opportunity to try to level up, but don't over do it. We don't want anyone to faint from exhaustion while we take on the boss tomorrow," he added, half jokingly. "If any of you come up with a strategy while you explore, message me, and I'll add it to the list of strategies to discuss in our morning meeting when we cement everyone's roles so we can keep deaths to a minimum. The meeting will be held at 10 in the morning. Almost immediately after... we'll take on the boss. Good luck." He hesitated then spoke again. "Kibaou got me thinking about item distribution. Money will automatically be divided equally among everyone. EXP goes to the party that defeats the monster. And whoever receives an item, keeps it. Any objections?" There were none. "Then we're done here. See you all tomorrow."

People started moving. Kirito looked up and realized that Asuna was already leaving.

"Hey wait up," he called as he jogged after her. She paused.

"Why are you following me?"

"Because we need to get used to working with each other," Kirito answered simply, and if it weren't for that, at her curt question, he would've just left her alone.

"Oh... is being in a party different than being solo?" she queried quietly. Kirito stopped and stared at her.

"You don't know? What is this your first MMORPG?" He was stunned when she hesitantly nodded.

"Yeah, SAO was my brother's game but he had a business trip so he let me try it out... I only expected to play for a day..." Kirito wondered why she was so soft spoken and timid, but put that out of his mind as he focused on helping her out.

"Alright then, I'll help you out, but first... I need to quiz you on what you do know."

The quiz and following explanation of various terms, such as switch, occupied much of the time they spent getting food, eating, and then heading to the dungeon entrance. They fell silent as they walked inside and looked around for monsters warily. They weren't the only ones around, and both Kirito and Asuna, without communicating, chose to wander far away from where most of the parties were exploring. Both relaxed once it was just them.

"So... were you a beta tester?" Asuna asked curiously. Kirito stiffened, and ran through what he could say, and in the end, he decided he preferred to be honest.

"Yes, I was," he responded simply. "How did you know?"

"I saw you when... Kibaou was it? Was ranting, you weren't very calm and you seemed a bit nervous or angry, I couldn't tell..."

"Well, you're pretty observant. It was both. I don't want to be treated terribly because I was a beta tester, and I was also angry because I knew some of the beta testers that had died, and at least one of them had been as good or better than me in beta," he explained, relieved that she didn't seem to care.

"It's stupid to hate people who were beta testers," Asuna stated firmly, "they can't help their situation any more than I can or Agil could. They just had extra knowledge, that's all... and won't that knowledge run out eventually?" Kirito nodded, pleased. This girl was intelligent, and while she was shy, she had an inner strength that would help her survive the game. She just didn't know it yet.

"Yeah, I only made it to floor 8, and the highest any beta tester made it was floor 10. They're just looking for someone to blame since the real person we should blame is out of our reach." He sighed. "It's a natural but irrational reaction."

Before the conversation could continue, they encountered some monsters. It was time to see if they could work together. It was several minutes before they had a break from the waves of monsters they kept encountering.

"You're doing well," Kirito complemented, "for having no experience and only the guidebook to help you."

"Really?" Asuna exclaimed, surprised. "I thought I was barely making it..." Kirito chuckled.

"Probably over half of the people at the meeting were at level 9 or 8, maybe even a stray 7 in there somewhere. Not many people are at level 10 yet, let alone any higher. You're doing fine. Shall we go investigate the boss room and see what it looks like?" he suggested, pulling up the map. "It looks like its not far from here, I know a shortcut."

"Alright," the girl responded softly.

Kirito smiled at her, trying to encourage her before turning and leading the way. The shortcut involved an opening to a path that was rather narrow and easily overlooked. Before long, they were there. Thankfully, it seemed that people either had chosen not to check out the room, or had already left. He peeked in, and then moved away to let Asuna do the same. She hesitated before doing so.

"It looks like a normal room to me..." she commented uncertainly. Kirito shook his head.

"There's a few differences, the torches for example, they're different than in normal rooms, much bigger. Most rooms don't have a pattern on the floor. And there's the doors of course. And finally, it looks exactly like it did in beta, just in a different spot, which is why no one found it sooner. I can't have been the only beta tester at that meeting," he explained. He still felt uncertain, but he didn't like seeing anyone as run down as Asuna seemed, so he tried to be cheerful and more open than normal to encourage her out of her shell.

"Oh... I see. I guess I need to be more observant."

"Hey, it's fine. It took me until floor 3 or 4 before I could tell for sure if a room was a boss room without entering it." Okay that was stretching the truth a bit, but the doors were rather plain for the first few floors, slowly growing more ornate with each level. At least it got her to cheer up.

"So, more exploring, or head back to town?" he enquired. She shrugged.

"More exploring," she decided after a moment. They started walking in silence, both actually enjoying themselves, even if they'd never admit to it aloud. They were attacked again after ten minutes.

Kirito immediately moved into action. Asuna followed with quick graceful movements. The boy noticed that she seemed slower than earlier, but didn't have time to comment on it due to the fight. As he dispatched the last monster fighting him, he turned around. Just in time to see Asuna collapse. He ran over and killed the last two monsters. He started at her health bar, it was barely in the yellow. There was no reason for her to collapse... unless she'd exhausted herself.

He cursed, and picked her up. Thankfully, the harassment system for touching a player didn't come into play if the player being touched was unconscious, to allow for them to be brought into safe zones, especially if one shared a party with them. He headed out of the dungeon, taking short cuts and other routes not well known to avoid questions. Besides, she probably wouldn't want other people to know. She seemed like the sort of person who hated being seen as weak.

Finally, he made it to an inn where he paid rent for a room with two twin beds. He carried her up the stairs and into the room. He set her on a bed and then went over to the other bed. He sat down and started wondering what he should do. He checked the time. It was only 2, so maybe he should let her sleep. He stretched. Yeah that was a good idea. He wondered what he should do for the next few hours while he waited for her to wake up.

Then he remembered. The message from Klein he'd gotten just before the meeting said that he was in Tolbana and not with his friends because of a disagreement. Even if he couldn't convince the man to help out with the boss battle, he could still update him. He thought about sending him a message, but decided against it. The message he'd gotten this morning said that Klein was planning on being in the fields or dungeons and taking out his frustration on the monsters there. He checked Klein's location. Seemed the man had chosen the fields.

However, before Kirito left, he paused and sent a message to Asuna, telling her what had happened, and that the room was theirs to share for the night. And to let him know when she woke up of course. Then he left the room, locking it behind him.

Kirito wandered around outside the city, looking for his friend. It didn't take long to find him, fighting a mountain lion. Mountain lions were just a step up from wolves and boars in strength, so it was a good choice, it would give more exp even though it was at the same level as the wolves one encountered on the way to Tolbana. He watched it shatter, and moved forward.

"Hey Klein," he greeted, smiling slightly. Klein turned, and grinned widely.

"Kirito! What brings you out here?" he exclaimed.

"Looking for you. I had nothing else to do," he responded, shrugging, and smiling a bit wider. Klein always greeted him so brightly, and it really helped his self esteem a bit.

"What about the boss meeting?" Klein asked curiously as they moved to a safe spot to sit down.

"Well, it went okay I guess, and there's another meeting tomorrow to strategize before we go fight the boss..." Kirito replied slowly.

"What happened at the meeting then?" the other man persisted. Kirito sighed. Klein could really be stubborn when he wanted to be.

"Well, it was okay at the beginning, a man named Diavel stepped up to lead the meeting, and then... A man named Kibaou decided to call out beta testers and claimed we needed to apologize for allowing the deaths to happen and for leaving all the beginners to work things out themselves among other things. Then a man named Agil stepped up, he was HUGE, and pointed out that beta testers have also died, and that the guidebook was created by beta testers... and then the meeting finally got underway. He read from the most recent edition of the guidebook what to expect, and then told us to spend the rest of the day training, and trying to level up, and that we'd strategize at the meeting tomorrow morning. And then he had us form parties," he finished, dramatically.

"No more playing solo?" Klein joked. Kirito shrugged.

"It's not too bad, when I realized what he'd said, pretty much everyone had already formed parties, but there was this girl by herself, so we teamed up. She was pretty exhausted though so after three hours or so she went to take a nap, and I got bored, so here I am," Kirito finished, shrugging.

"A girl? Can you introduce me?" Klein asked eagerly.

"I don't think she's looking to have a boyfriend, Klein," the younger boy rolled his eyes. "And I'm not sure you're her type anyways, she's rather shy and quiet."

"Oh, so your type then," the elder of the two jibed, smirking. Kirito blushed.

"N-no, it's not like that!" he protested, thankful he hadn't mentioned that he'd carried her. That would've really set Klein going.

"Sure she's not. I get it, she's off limits so you can have her." He shoved Kirito lightly. The boy rolled his eyes and gave up.

"So what's the problem with your friends?" he queried, to change the subject. The older man grimaced.

"We had an argument last night about things... mostly about me pushing them to train and get better, and how they think we should just accept that the game is impossible to beat and that we're going to die..." Klein shook his head. "I've accepted that death is a possibility, but I'm going to keep fighting."

"Me too. Besides, I don't think Kayaba would've made it impossible for us to beat. He's not that cruel or sadistic."

"Yeah... I hope beating the first floor boss gets changes their attitude. I don't want to abandon them, though we agreed to take a few days off and see where things stand then... If they don't change their attitude, I'm going to have to leave them, probably go solo." Klein sighed.

"Well my offer from the first day still stands," Kirito pointed out. "I wouldn't mind more company than just myself and the monsters," he added jokingly. "So... if you're not doing anything with your friends, why don't you come help with the boss fight? It's not too late, you could join me and Asuna in our party..."

"I don't know... My friends would hate me for doing it without them..." Klein responded hesitantly. Kirito gave him a disbelieving look. "Oh... wait. They already aren't happy with me... Then sure, why not. Could be a good experience." Kirito smiled and sent him a party invitation. The other only slightly hesitated before hitting accept.

They spent two hours finding and killing monsters. They joked and laughed with each other a lot of the time, until they realized it was nearly sunset. The younger stretched.

"You should check your equipment out, and make sure you pick up some potions," Kirito suggested. "I'm going to head back to check on Asuna, I'll message you with a place to meet later so you can meet her, alright?"

"That's fine by me. I'm going to see if I can get one more kill in first," the other responded as he stood.

"See you later then."

* * *

><p>Asuna woke up slowly, staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. Where was she? What happened? The last thing she remembered was fighting those monsters alongside Kirito... Something must've happened. She sat up and looked around. A two bed inn room. Had Kirito brought her here? That was nice of him... she noted with surprise. But where was he? She looked up and saw his health bar below hers, along with a third health bar.<p>

"Klein... who's Klein?" she wondered aloud. Did that mean Kirito added someone to their party? She felt uneasy about it. She didn't know the person at all. The door opened. She jumped and turned to look, glad her hood was still up. She didn't like people knowing how she looked, they tended to be super nice and fake then. Which made Kirito willing to put up with her all the more amazing.

"Hey, you're up," Kirito greeted her. "You collapsed in the middle of fighting, I was kind of worried," he added, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh... I don't know why," she murmured quietly and then looked up. "Who's Klein? Why is he in our party?"

"Klein is my friend, I've been helping him out over the last month, and since he's in town, he wanted to help out with the boss," he explained. He realized he may have done something wrong when she looked down and seemed to shrink in on herself more.

"Oh... Okay," she responded quietly. She felt disappointed. Did he not have faith in her?

"What is it?" he asked gently, genuinely worried. "It seems like there's something you want to say. Go ahead say it, I mean we're friends right? Well teammates," he corrected himself, blushing slightly at assuming they were friends. Asuna jerked her head up in surprise, barely keeping her hood from falling. She hesitated, and then spoke.

"Do you not trust me to be able to work with you? Is that why you had him join the party?" Stunned, Kirito shook his head. "Then why didn't you ask me? Aren't we supposed to be able to work together? I've never even heard of Klein let alone met him! I don't know him, how can I work with him?" she ranted fiercely and loudly. The black-haired boy watched in surprise at her temper and the loss of her timid manner. Then he realized that she had stopped, and was possibly trying not to cry.

"You're right, I should've at least asked you first. I wasn't expecting him to be able to fight the boss for reasons of his own, otherwise I would've said something earlier. And we can do some late night hunting in the fields, it is a little more dangerous at night yes, but it's safer in the fields than in the dungeons. Would that be better? And you can meet him soon, I just need to message him to say when and where," he concluded. Asuna thought about it for a bit.

"I... I suppose that will work... thank you for listening to me," she added softly, looking at her hands. "I shouldn't have ranted like that." Kirito waved off her comment.

"Don't worry about it. It's good to know how you're really feeling, bottling things up can be bad..." He sighed. "I'd know," he mumbled. She glanced at him in surprise, but then decided maybe a change in subject would be good. She wouldn't want to talk about it, so he probably doesn't want to either.

"Did you... Carry me here?" she questioned hesitantly. Kirito nodded, tensing slightly, and trying not to blush.

"Yeah, you collapsed in the middle of a fight in exhaustion. I avoided the crowds and took a back way here, I don't think anyone saw." He remained calm, but he was nervous about how she'd react. Maybe she would've preferred that he woke her up?

"What do you mean collapsed in exhaustion? I didn't think we could feel tired here..." Asuna responded in confusion. Kirito sighed.

"That's the theory... but even though we're not using our bodies, are brains are fooled into thinking we are and sometimes exhaustion is mental... As well as we do need REM sleep. Don't tell me you haven't slept..." he groaned. She studied her hands.

"I uh have. But... only like 2 hours a night... and I haven't collapsed before..."

"Well I'm surprised you haven't. You must have a strong will. But that doesn't mean you should be taking risks like that. What if you were alone? Then you would've died right there. You need to get more sleep than you've been getting, you can't survive like that. So please get some sleep tonight, alright?" Kirito told her firmly, yet worriedly. She glared at him. He took a step back in surprise.

"You can't tell me what to do. It's my life and I'll do what I want with it!" she yelled and stood up. Kirito froze in place. What a time for her to grow angry.

"I'm just worried about you! I don't want to see anyone die!" he tried to bring her around. "If you don't get enough sleep you could kill yourself out there! Don't waste your life that way," he begged, desperate. He didn't want anyone to die, especially not someone in his party, not someone who could be a friend.

"Don't. Tell. Me. What. To. Do. You're no better than my parents," she snarled. A smack echoed through the room before she stalked out. She couldn't believe the audacity of the boy! And to think she was beginning to like him. Too bad she was stuck with him for the boss fight... but she could be professional and put that argument aside. She went to go find some food, still stewing with anger.

Kirito watched her go in stunned silence. He put his hand to his cheek and sat down, hard, on the bed. She just slapped him. There was a vague sting of pain, and he was kind of glad that the pain absorber hadn't been fully developed before the game launched. Made it easier to realize when he needed to take a break and take a potion to heal up. And made the fact that a girl he had been trying to be nice to and was concerned about, had hit him in anger and then stormed out all the more real. It had just happened.

He dropped his head in his hands and wondered what he was to do now... This was why he preferred being solo. No chance of screwing up what doesn't exist after all. He sighed heavily. He'd only been trying to help. What was wrong with him? He groaned and stood up after glancing out the window. Night was falling, so it was time to get food. He put his hands in his pockets and left the room, barely remembering to lock it behind him.

He wandered around town for a while before he headed to a stand that sold black bread. He shrugged and bought some. It was cheap after all, and wasn't terrible tasting either. Plus he still had some cream left from completing that quest. He turned to find a place to sit and eat.

"Hey Kirito there you are," Klein called, jogging up. Kirito looked up and half smiled.

"Hey Klein," he responded half heartedly. Klein stopped and stared at him.

"Did something happen?" he asked. The other boy shrugged.

"Asuna and I had an argument, that's all. Don't think she likes me much," he added, unable to keep the disappointment out of his voice. The older man draped his arm across Kirito's shoulders.

"How could anyone not like you?" he exclaimed dramatically. "You're cute, you're kind and love to help people, you're practically a knight in shining black armor, and you're just an all around good guy, what's not to like?" Kirito found himself cheering up at his friends antics, enough to tease back.

"Oh don't tell me you have a crush on me, cause you know I don't swing that way," he commented, smiling widely as the other jumped away as if Kirito had turned into a fire.

"What? No! Ew! Well not like I think that homosexuality is weird but me and another guy?" He shuddered. "No thank you!" Kirito chuckled.

"I knew it." He grinned widely at the affronted look on Klein's face.

"I should've known you were joking." The man chuckled. "So looks like that's the only spot free right now," he pointed at where a lone person was sitting. They were in the town square, and lots of people liked to hang out there. Kirito sighed after he looked.

"So it seems..." He walked over that way with Klein following, confused at how Kirito went from joking to glum so quickly. Kirito sat down.

"Hey Asuna. This is Klein. Klein, this is Asuna. I was thinking we could check out one of the fields later to make sure we can handle working together, that alright?" He didn't know why he was pretending earlier didn't happen, but he didn't want Klein to know the details, and Asuna probably would appreciate that the man didn't know the details.

"Sounds good to me," Klein responded brightly as he sat down on her other side, making sure to give her space.

Asuna merely nodded, and stared at her bread. It only had one bite out of it, and it looked like she was trying to decide if it was worth it to eat more. Klein tried and failed to engage her in conversation while Kirito wondered if she would keep up the cold shoulder the whole time. He watched her nibble at the bread again, and decided to just randomly talk. If anything that should at least annoy her into talking.

"Those are pretty good, aren't they?" he inquired as he took out his own bread. He tossed a roll to Klein, who looked surprised and sheepish. He probably had forgotten to buy some.

"Does it matter if they taste good?" she responded quietly. Kirito cheered inwardly while Klein smirked at him.

"Well, of course it does. We need to eat in game because our avatars get weak otherwise, and it's no fun to eat things that taste terrible. Since I arrived at this town, I've been eating at least one every day. I do change it up though, it'd be boring just eating this every day." He opened up his inventory and checked his cream, to his relief, there were still three uses left. Good thing he hadn't had any cream the day before.

"Change it up? How?"

"Well there are spices and sauces and other things you can get around the game, most just by buying them, sometimes from those with a high cooking skill since they're the only ones who have certain sauces and spices," Klein explained.

"Yeah, try putting some of this on the bread," Kirito told her as he put the jar down and took some for himself. Klein jumped up to get some but was patient enough to allow Asuna get some first. She put her finger to the bread.

"Cream?" she stated in surprise. Klein grinned widely as he took the last of the cream and the jar shattered, it's durability gone. He returned to his spot and started eating. Asuna took a hesitant bite and then devoured it quickly. Klein and Kirito shared looks of shock at the action.

"It's the reward for a quest called 'The Heifer Strikes Back,' one village behind us," he explained, thinking she'd like more of the cream. If you want to do it, I'll tell you the trick," he offered, ignoring Klein's look of 'please share' complete with an attempt at puppy eyes. She shook her head.

"I didn't come to this town to eat good food," she stated. Klein and Kirito exchanged confused looks. As he'd said earlier, it was hard to actually eat food that didn't taste good, so what was she thinking then?

"Then why did you?" Kirito asked after a moment, genuinely curious, and hoping she'd actually share.

"So I can still be me. I'd rather stay myself until the very last moment than lock myself inside an inn back in the first town, and slowly rot away. Even if I'm defeated by a monster and die, I don't want to lose to this game... to this world. No matter what." There was silence. That certainly explained a lot of her actions, actually.

"If you don't want to lose to this game, or this world, then why aren't you taking care of yourself? Allow yourself to eat good food, get some sleep." Kirito was surprised by how worried he was about her. It half sounded like she expected to die at any moment. Wait, what if that was what she thought?

"All that matters is beating the game," she replied softly. "I have to do my part even though I'll probably die."

"You sound just as pessimistic as my friends," Klein observed, stretching. "Though they don't see the point in trying, so at least you're doing that. But you won't get anywhere believing you're going to die." She lifted her head and stared at him.

"Yeah," Kirito agreed, "you won't fight as hard because you're expecting to die. By all means accept that you might, that it's a possibility, I have." He shrugged. "But don't let it interfere with you doing your best. You have the potential to be once of the best players in the game someday." She turned to him in surprise.

"You think so? Though I haven't ever played a game like this before?"

"Especially because of that. Level 10 without anyone helping you? That's really amazing," Kirito answered.

"Yeah, and seriously, the bit about not being yourself? You decide who you are. Okay, you don't want to rot away in an inn. But do you want to focus only on clearing the game, not allowing yourself to have any fun at all? Not even the luxury of good food?" Klein queried. She turned to stare at him, not even noticing when her hood fell down, revealing long red-orange hair that she'd hidden. Kirito felt jealous that his friend got to see her face first.

"It... it can't be that bad..." she whispered.

"Well, it took one month to clear 10 floors in beta. Obviously its harder now especially since we have to be cautious about dying, but just by that rate, we'll be here for 10 months before the game is clear. Is it really good for anyone to do that much work without taking any time off and treating themselves?" She turned to stare at Kirito. He smiled gently at her, noticing that she really was beautiful. Maybe that's why she kept the hood up.

"I... I never thought of it like that... But... I don't want to lose more time in the real world..."

"Don't think of it that way," Klein inserted casually. "We're aware of everything happening except for when we're sleeping. We control everything we do. This isn't a dream. So doesn't this count as living?"

"Yeah, so what if we're not living in the real world? Maybe we're not doing what we'd normally be doing during this time, like school and jobs, but we're still living. Our jobs will be as clearers, or merchants, or whatever we choose. We're going to be growing and maturing as people here, probably faster than most my age or your age. We might be losing time in the real world, but we're still living, and we should live it to the fullest even as we work on clearing the game," Kirito explained passionately. Asuna stared at him, eyes wide and shining like she was trying not to cry.

"You really think that?" She was louder now, a bit more confident. Kirito relaxed a little.

"Truly. And while I do understand you want to be independent, I do just want to help, I didn't mean to get as... vocal about it as I did earlier. I'm sorry. But also keep in mind that you don't have to always be independent you can ask for help and I won't look down on you for it," he informed her, inwardly hoping he said the right thing.

"Alright... I'll try. But that quest doesn't sound worth it if the only reward is cream," she added.

"Alright, that's true enough." Kirito shrugged. "I just like cream, and it gave me exp, and I like my current equipment anyways."

"I might try for it at some point, it sounds interesting," Klein added. "And I really like the cream. But everyone has different preferences. So what do you say we go out to the fields to get used to working as a team, yeah?" He stood up and stretched.

"Sounds good to me." Kirito also stood up and stretched. "I believe I still have killed more monsters than you if we're still keeping track of kills when we're partied," he added teasingly.

"Oy! It's only by one and I'm planning on changing that tonight!" Klein responded, grinning widely. Asuna giggled at their antics.

"Are you two siblings or something?" she asked bravely. Both froze and stared at each other and then at her.

"Actually... we'd never met before the day of launch..." Kirito told her, in shock.

"Well... you do act like how I imagined siblings to be..." she commented, a bit uncertain again, but still more firm and louder than she had been before.

"Huh..." Klein mused aloud and then grinned before pulling Kirito into a chokehold. "I had always wanted a little brother."

"Oy!" The younger boy struggled to get out while Asuna giggled at the pair. "Well I wouldn't mind an older brother but you can be annoying sometimes!"

"That's my job as older brother." Klein smirked. Kirito groaned.

"Oh... fine. But we probably should get a move on, it's nearly 8pm, and we want to get to bed at a decent hour so we're well rested for the boss fight."

"Oh fine," Klein mocked, pouting as he released his newly-dubbed little brother.

And then the newly formed party of three left to go do some training with each other, rather content with the new state of things.

* * *

><p>It was a mostly solemn group that headed for the boss room. Kirito, Asuna, and Klein were walking in the back. Because Kirito and Asuna worked well together, and Klein and Kirito worked well as a team, it wasn't hard to get into the swing of it as a trio. But when they went to the boss meeting, they'd been delegated to fend off the sentinels with some of the other parties, that would switch in to fight the boss once in a while. Apparently being a three person party meant that they weren't 'good' enough to be facing the boss at all. On one hand, it did kind of make sense, all other parties were 5 or 6 people. On the other, Diavel and the others doing most of the planning dismissed them as unimportant without even asking their levels.<p>

The trio talked quietly to each other, finalizing their own strategies. If they could take out the sentinels fast enough, they'd be able to actually fight the boss and help out before more spawned.. They also made plans that were easily adaptable in case something didn't go according to plan.

"I still don't have a good feeling about this..." Kirito murmured as they walked. "The boss room was in a different location, that means the boss could be changed too, and that's not good at all..."

Klein and Asuna stared at him, admitted they hadn't thought of that and then they immediately started making contingency plans based on that. Finally though, they had to go quiet as they approached the boss room. Diavel stopped outside the boss room and turned to face everyone.

"Listen up everyone. I only have one thing to say to you. Let's win!"

"What a rousing speech," Kirito muttered, "he could've been more encouraging." Asuna nodded in agreement, looking a bit pale. Klein gripped his sword, looking unusually serious. And a bit nervous.

"Let's go!" He turned and opened the doors. Everyone filed in after him.

There was a brief pause as everyone took in the monster before them. They had the sense that no the monster wouldn't be like normal ones, but it was one thing to think about it, and another to actually see it. Even Kirito felt uneasy at the sight. It seemed so much more menacing now that it could kill them for good.

"Commence attack!" Diavel ordered as it charged behind three sentinels.

Kirito wondered briefly at how easily Diavel gave commands when the man had acted as if he hadn't wanted to be in charge, yet now was perfectly capable and seemed to enjoy it. Maybe it had been an act at the meeting. He shook his head and prepared to fight. This was no time to be distracted.

Klein, Asuna, and Kirito followed orders quickly and efficiently, easily holding off the sentinels near them as per instructions. It became a blur of fighting and following orders. Kirito itched to take on the boss himself but he had to remind himself that doing so would disrupt the plan and possibly get people killed. Asuna moved quickly, even faster than he'd seen her the day before now that she was well rested. Klein struck hard every time he hit, his skills more based in strength than speed. The three worked well together, much better than some of the parties.

Then... The situation changed.

The boss was in the red on his final bar, getting ready to shift into its final stage. Diavel charged early, when he wasn't supposed to, breaking the plan into pieces. Kirito paused and watched in confusion, wondering why Diavel broke the plan... unless he wanted the final attack bonus item. As Diavel charged, Kirito realized what weapon it was. This wasn't like the beta after all. Dammit.

"Don't!" he yelled. "That's a nōdachi not a talwar! Get out of there!"

Diavel flew back from the attack and landed, his health draining. Kirito ran over, leaving Klein and Asuna to cover for him.

"Diavel! What were you thinking?" he gasped as he knelt down next to the man. He tried to give him a potion, but to his surprise, Diavel stopped him.

"You were... a beta tester weren't you?" he whispered, barely having the strength to talk. "You know," he stated simply. Kirito stared at him in surprise, and realized his first thought about his actions had been correct.

"You were after the rare item from the last attack bonus," he responded, quietly. "You were a beta tester too then." Diavel nodded slightly and smiled.

"Please... you have to... defeat the boss," he croaked. "For everyone here..." He was fading.

He nodded again. And then shattered in Kirito's arms. Kirito froze, nearly crying. This was the first person to die in front of him. To die in his arms. If only Diavel had taken the potion... This man had led the whole raid party, and from what he knew, had been the inspiration for many of the players trying to clear the dungeon. And no one realized he was a beta tester, and he probably never felt like he could reveal it. Well, Kirito wasn't about to do that. He had to step up and fight the boss. The boss had to be defeated to prove to everyone that defeating the boss was possible, and that they could clear this game if only they tried. He took a deep breath and stood.

"I'm with you," Asuna stated calmly as she came up beside him, though she was shaking slightly from nerves. She was however more calm than she would've been before their talk last night.

"I'm with you too, little bro," Klein added, mostly serious, but there was a teasing undertone.

Kirito half smiled. It was relief to know he didn't have to take on this burden alone, and if they hadn't offered and sounded so firm and sincere, he would have done it alone, taken on the full burden alone to make Diavel's death mean something. Huh, maybe he had changed in the last month after all. He used to be a complete loner, independent and selfish. Now, he was okay relying on friends and helping them out. A big change from just two days before when he was thinking about not making friends at all. He readied himself... and charged.

"We'll get him just like we did with the sentinels," he ordered as the trio ran.

"Got it." Asuna was still somehow calm.

"Of course." Klein was still nervous, but doing a pattern he was familiar with would make it much easier. He took a deep breath and reminded himself to be calm and just fight, no worries for now.

Kirito attacked first, then Asuna. Klein took his turn and was replaced by Kirito quickly. Then Asuna attacked, and was attacked herself, tearing her hooded cloak, but leaving her uninjured. She finished her attack. Kirito stared, she was even more beautiful than he thought after the glimpse of her face he got yesterday when her hood fell down. Klein ran in as she danced out of reach.

"Argh," Kirito groaned as Klein dove out of the way. "He's still up!"

They continued attacking, while the rest of the group remained frozen, watching. Well, some held off the sentinels that were still alive, but mostly they just watched. Shocked that Diavel died, amazed at the teamwork between the three, wondering if they would defeat the boss... frozen for many reasons. Kirito focused mainly at blocking, he was better at it than both Klein and Asuna, and it kept the boss's focus on him while they attacked.

Suddenly... he was struck. Somehow he didn't see it coming, and he cursed his carelessness as he flew back into Asuna. They fell back and Klein moved to protect them. Kirito and Asuna started to get up. The girl looked up and gasped at the sight of the boss preparing to give them the killing blow. Klein stood ready to protect them, but he wasn't sure his sword could take the hit.

It turned out they didn't have to. Agil had stepped in to knock the nōdachi out of the way with his axe. The rest of the players charged in.

Klein took the opportunity to take a breather, his health wasn't down much at all somehow, as was Asuna's. Kirito, he noticed, was close to the yellow. Agil turned to face them.

"We can hold this bastard off until your health is back up," he told them. Kirito smiled.

"You've got it!" He quickly pulled out his potions, and handed them to his friends before taking on, ignoring their protests that they didn't need it.

The other players were getting steamrolled by the boss's moves, but thankfully there were no deaths yet. Kirito stood up, ready once again. And just in time too, it looked like the boss was about to kill some of the players.

"Look out!" he yelled and charged, sword ready. "You're going down!" he screamed at the boss as he attacked. The boss was flung away. Kirito didn't land on his feet but he was up quickly.

"Klein, Asuna, help me defeat him, just one more attack!" he called.

"Got it!" they chorused and charged with him.

All it took was one hit each from Klein and Asuna, and then a final attack by Kirito, and the boss shattered. There was silence for a moment as the news sunk in. Then everyone cheered loudly as a congratulations sign appeared in the air above them. While nearly everyone celebrated, Kirito kneeled on one knee, panting. Then he took notice of the last attack congratulations followed by a bonus item notification... Coat of midnight. He grinned. He loved the color black, he would enjoy wearing it for sure.

"Nice job," Asuna told him. He glanced at her and smiled. Then he noticed Agil next to her just before the man spoke.

"That was some splendid swordsmanship. Congratulations, this victory belongs to you." Most of the raid group started cheering in agreement before he could protest.

"Hey I helped," Klein protested, back in a joking mood now that the danger was over. Asuna glared at him.

"As much as I did," she pointed out coolly. He sighed.

"You've got to learn to take a joke, Asuna."

Kirito snickered at Klein's antics and the look on Asuna's face as he turned back to his bonus item. He was about to hit accept when Kibaou just had to make a scene.

"Why?" the man yelled. "Why... why did you let Diavel die? You knew what technique the boss would use! If you'd give us that information up front, he wouldn't have died!" There was silence. Kirito sighed and waited for the outburst, trying to decide how to handle it. His favored idea was taking on the hatred of beta testers onto himself so that he was the only object of their hate rather than the others... but Klein would not agree to it and would foil that plan.

"He must be an ex-beta tester!" some random guy yelled, pointing at him.

"Here we go," Kirito muttered as he hit accept on the coat and put it on.

"That's how he knew all about the boss's attack patterns. He knew but he kept it from us.

"There's gotta be others here too, right? Those beta testers! Come out!"

No one was willing to step forward and admit to being one. Kirito wasn't sure there even was another in the group. At this rate, people were going to hate beta testers forever. He had to do something.

Agil, Asuna, and Klein started trying to calm people down. He shook his heads at them.

"Alright, listen up," he called, sorely tempted to call them names. "I did NOT let Diavel die. I attempted to give him a potion. His death is not anyone's fault but Kayaba's and his own. If he hadn't broken formation and gone against the plan, he wouldn't have been hit fatally. We all would've been able to recover from the shock of a different weapon being used than in beta, and yes I do mean we. Kayaba is a bastard who changed things on us. First he moved the boss room, it used to be close to the stairs that led to this level, and then he changed the boss's attack patterns. He did that so that we could not rely on our knowledge. I recognized that weapon because I faced a monster with that sword skill on floor 8, when most beta testers made it no higher than floor 5." He crossed his arms, looking stern and solemn as he stared down the people in the raid group. None of them seemed happy.

"I did not intentionally keep things from you, and if you had noticed, I tried to warn him as soon as I realized it was different than in beta. I did my best to participate in the battle and help out. Oh, and you know why Diavel broke formation to attack the boss? He was after this." Kirito showed off his coat. "The last attack bonus item. It's not a well known thing, but he clearly knew. He admitted just before he died that he was also a beta tester."

"You're lying!" Kibaou yelled. "You you... Beta tester cheater!"

Many players began chanting 'beta tester cheater' until it blended into the word 'beater'. Kirito stared, not sure what to think or how to react. Inwardly he just wanted to be in his room in the real world so he could curl up and try to forget.

"I assure you, I'm not lying," he protested weakly. The chant continued, louder, until Agil called for silence.

"Think about it," Agil stated calmly after a moment of thinking about it. "Diavel has been one of the best players clearing out the dungeons, was one of the first ones to make it to Tolbana, he was able to take charge, and he did chose not to follow the strategy, when he had stressed that we were not to break away from the plan unless things changed drastically." Kibaou seemed to recognize the logic but refused to back down.

"If you're so good and helpful," he sneered, "why haven't you been helping players out, huh?"

"Because I don't like a lot of attention. I'm not like Diavel. And with how people hate beta testers, it wasn't like I could come out and say it either." Kirito appeared outwardly calm and even a bit flippant, but inside he was freaking out.

"And he was helping other players!" Klein exclaimed loudly. "That first day he helped me, and if he hadn't, I would've died trying to kill one of those stupid boars! Since then he's been coming to help me and my friends a few times a week, even though my friends don't want his help. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have been able to help out with this boss fight... It's definitely possible I wouldn't even be alive! Sure he only helped six of us beginners, but he still helped out. And if it weren't for him being here at this boss battle, how many of you would've died before the boss was defeated... all of you? Yet you have the audacity to treat him like this after all that!" He crossed his arms and glared fiercely at them all in defense of his brother.

There was stunned silence as everyone stared at Klein. Even Asuna and Agil were surprised. Kirito however was not. He smiled slightly as he turned around.

"Let's go. It's clear that they want to blame everyone but Kayaba for what's going on," he told them softly.

Klein and Asuna nodded in agreement. They followed him to the door opposite the ones they entered from. It was time to open the second floor. Agil looked at all the men sternly.

"I'm very disappointed at how you've chosen to handle this situation. He just killed the boss before we lost anyone besides Diavel, and it had been a very close thing. He also brought up a good point. There's no one to blame but Kayaba, and maybe ourselves if we make stupid mistakes. You fail to realize that treating beta testers with scorn and hatred only drives them to hide themselves more, fearing attacks, rather than rushing to anyone's aid. Now, I believe it's time I said good bye. I can not stand to be in your company after this." He left the party and then hurried to catch up to the trio.

The trio was silent as they ascended the steps, each still processing what had happened. They had defeated the boss, with only one loss. Then Kirito, the one who beat the boss, was met with scorn when they realized he must be a beta when only seconds before they were cheering that the boss was defeated.

"Hey wait up!" Agil called as he finally caught up to them. All three turned in surprise. He leaned against a railing to catch his breath. "You handled that very well, and very maturely," he told Kirito. The boy smiled and shrugged.

"It was better than my original plan. Fuel their hatred of me so that they didn't hate other beta testers." The other three stared. He sighed. "Yeah, I know. Terrible plan. Still happened though."

"But you did nothing to perpetrate their views of you. You did good, kid," Agil informed him seriously.

"If you say so. Why did you follow us?" Kirito questioned curiously. Agil shrugged.

"I didn't like their treatment of you, and I had been getting tired of traveling with them anyways," he explained simply.

"Oh... okay. Uh... did you want to join our party then?" Kirito queried unsurely.

"If you don't mind."

Kirito, having learned his lesson, checked with both Klein and Asuna first before sending him an invite. Agil hit accept. They continued climbing the stairs, Klein lagging behind as he muttered to himself and typed up a short message to his friends, simply stating the the first floor boss was beaten and that the second floor would be open any minute.

They finally reached the doors. Kirito took a deep breath before he opened them. There wasn't nearly as much fanfare as he expected, but it didn't matter. The second floor was open. More space for people to explore.

* * *

><p>Kirito collapsed in bed. The day had been exhausting, mainly thanks to the boss battle. Unfortunately, Klein had to return to the first floor to talk with his friends. They'd actually requested it, saying they wanted to straighten things out now that the first floor was cleared. From what Klein said, the tone of the messages they'd explained was much more cheerful than they'd been since the game started.<p>

A few people were already exploring the city near the entrance to the city. And the title 'beater' was already making the rounds. Kirito frowned. There had to be something he could do about it... but what? He didn't want the beta testers to suffer anymore, but, he no longer had the options he had before... Then it hit him. He sat up and messaged Argo; one of the few people in beta that came close to being a friend. She was all about making money off of anything she could with information... except when it came to a newsletter. There, she helped out for free, though that was most likely because the information should already be common knowledge. He waited impatiently for her reply, and smirked when he got it. Thank goodness for the newsletter sent out as a message to every player.

* * *

><p><em><strong>SAO Daily Newsletter December 5th, 2022<strong>_

_**Run by the players themselves**_

_**First floor cleared; only one loss! Beater Kirito speaks out for all beta testers!**_

_**(Writer: Argo)**_

_** Yesterday afternoon, the first floor boss was defeated. Unfortunately, raid leader Diavel died. Thankfully his was the only death. Kirito was in a party with two other players when he dealt the last attack and received the Coat of Midnight as a bonus item. We don't have any other details on the fight, but what happened afterwards was simply astounding. Almost every player in the raid started blaming Kirito for Diavel's death and blaming him for being a beta tester. When Kirito remained calm and rational, they continued their frenzy, and called him a 'beater' because, according to them he is a cheater and a beta tester. However, Kirito himself has sent a letter for all the players to read. Too bad no one else from the raid group was available for comment.**_

_**Dear players of SAO,**_

_** I'm just like you. I didn't want to be stuck in this virtual reality any more than you did. Same with every beta tester. No one wants to be stuck here. The only difference between us beta testers and the other players, is we got to play the game for a month. That's all.**_

_** When I found out I was stuck in the game, I was terrified just like most people. I don't want to die. So, I high tailed it out of the city. I didn't do it to leave people to get the 'worst' stuff. I did it so that I could survive, so that I could get items that I knew would help me survive. More than one I'd received in beta, yes. I didn't go after them out of pure selfishness. I went after them because I had grown used to my Anneal blade in beta, and it felt wrong using the beginner's sword.**_

_** So we focused only on our survival. So what? I can't think of any players who were completely selfless in helping other people. We have to defeat monsters ourselves so we can pay rent our own rooms and buy food. To get supplies, to have our armor repaired. To gain exp so we can level up ourselves. If we focus solely on other players, we will die from being underprepared. Right now this game is all about survival, and individual survival is key to getting as many of us out of here as possible. No that doesn't mean that we should abandon all the other players... however, thinking about the statistics, it was and is unlikely that every player can be helped. **_

_** 10,000 players trapped in this game. 2,000 dead within a month, 200-300 of them beta testers. At the start of the game, we had 1000 beta testers, and 9000 other players. That means that each beta tester would have to help 9 people out each for every person to be helped. Pretty hard to help all the ones who are locked in their rooms, hidden away. Hard to track down 9 players to help out. I myself have been helping 6 players for the last month. Now think about the statistics. 200 beta testers dead, leaving 800 alive. There are 7,200 non-beta testers left. Still means beta testers need to help out 9 people each. At this point, with how scattered we are, it would be nearly impossible to meet that 'quota'.**_

_** Also, don't blame us for deaths. Many of the deaths were by suicide or stupid mistakes. We wouldn't have been able to help those people. **_

_**There are two other reasons why it's been hard for beta testers to mentor anyone. Since day one, people have been expecting beta testers to lead the way. I'm only 14, I'm no leader. Since day one, those same people have been cursing beta testers for knowing know than they, and tossing threats around. It's no wonder beta testers have been shy about admitting they were one. **_

_** The other reason? Those same people who want to blame beta testers (when they really should be blaming Kayaba) won't take the help that is offered them. Of the 6 people I've helped in the last month, only one actually wanted me there teaching him. The other 5 only listened to me half heartedly. **_

_** I have been blamed for Diavel's death. As terrible and horrifying as it was to have him die in my arms, the blame falls on him. Not only had he gone against the plan, he'd also refused to take the potion I tried to give him. And guess what? He charged because he wanted the last attack bonus item. For some reason, up until yesterday, only beta testers knew about it. Do the math. I admit that is a prime example of us former beta testers being selfish. It cost him his life. And not all of us are like that. I had not been planning on going after the item, even though I wanted it. It was only Diavel's death that forced me to take a much more active role in the battle than what I'd been assigned. **_

_** You can't always rely on us beta testers either. As soon as we hit floor 10, we'll be equal in knowledge of the game. For now, we have more knowledge yes, but it's not always reliable thanks to Kayaba. Why do you think it took so long to find the boss room? It became painfully obvious when the boss switched to a nōdachi instead of the talwar we all expected. I knew about the sword skill itself because of the higher floors, but the first boss never used one in beta. I didn't expect to see it here. You know what that means? Kayaba has changed things so that it's challenging for betas too. Our information can be flawed.**_

_**Just... please treat us as people too. We ALL want to get out of here. If someone offers you help, don't turn it down just because they're a former beta tester. Not all of us are selfish, and I'm sure there's some selfish people among the 'normal' players. Even cowards.**_

_**If you want to blame someone, blame Kayaba for sticking us in this game. Blame him, and him alone for our suffering and pain. Blame him when people die from stupid beginner mistakes. Blame him when people commit suicide. Even though we can't see him right now, he's still our worst enemy. He's the one who put us here, and he can still control the world, we never know when he's going to change something on us. **_

_**Thank you for taking the time to read my letter.**_

_** Sincerely,**_

_** Kirito**_

**A/n Whew that was a wild ride wasn't it? Well, I was determined to get it done. I'd hoped to be done last night, October 31st, but it wasn't meant to be. It didn't take me too long to finish it today however. I just needed to let it sit before editing it. The reaction to the beater thing, including the letter? That was planned from the beginning. That was what started this fanfic. I'm pleased it turned out as good as I'd hoped, though originally I hadn't planned on Klein being there. But that's what happens when I write. Plans change all the time.**

**Now, there is one main reason for me not splitting this into two chapters. Today is November 1st. Which means NaNoWriMo. I started a new novel today, with the goal of reaching 50,000 words by midnight November 30th. I will be trying to work on my fanfictions during this month, but keep in mind that I have three other fanfictions I'm actively working on, so I don't know when this fic will be updated. It could be in December. It could be in a few weeks. I don't know. Just keep in mind that I'm working on my original fiction. I'll update this and my other fanfics as soon as I can.**

**Thank you for reading. I am aware that I messed with timelines, with events, and with rules of the game. That was mostly intentional. I'm taking creative license with this. I've studied quite a few things in the SAO wiki and I still don't understand half the things involved. It's to be expected though, since when it comes to games I tend to need to play the game itself to understand how it works. **


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